


The Enterprise Engineer, Kirk's Girl

by Klaegirl



Series: Kirk's Girl [1]
Category: Star Trek, Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-27
Updated: 2020-08-26
Packaged: 2021-03-02 19:34:54
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 12
Words: 25,850
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24412141
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Klaegirl/pseuds/Klaegirl
Summary: When Nero decided to attack the U.S.S. Kelvin he had no idea how much he was changing the world. Yet because of that James T. Kirk grew up with a friend who would turn the world on its head. Growing up together was an incredible adventure, now the academy would be just another. After all Lydia Talbot was the kind of engineer that when something didn't work she just hit it. Now how was she suppose to fix the mess Nero had made and help Kirk and Spock start a friendship that would last to the ages?
Relationships: James T. Kirk/Original Character(s), Spock/Nyota Uhura
Series: Kirk's Girl [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1897009
Comments: 1
Kudos: 11





	1. The Beginning

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first story here, but it seemed weird to me that so little actually changed from the mess Nero made. Hope you like it.

The U.S.S Kelvin was under attack and Madeline was fighting trying to stay near her best friend. It had been a hard night for Winona and Madeline was starting to worry that she was going to give birth in the middle of the attack. George Kirk had been on call the whole night as well as her husband and not having heard from either was worrying her. 

“Madeline, please call George. I need him here.”

Taking her friends hand Madeline turned to the medics. “We need to get her out of here now. They are beginning evacuation.” With that, the medics started getting ready. 

In the command center, everything was chaos. The U.S.S. Kelvin was being attack by an unknown vessel and every power and back up was failing. They had lost their captain to the unknown vessel. 

George Kirk had just utter his first words as captain when his best friend stepped onto the bridge. 

“Lieutenant Pitts. Transfer Robau's vital signs to the main view screen.” Kirk turned to his best friend seeing him coming on the bridge. “Ronald where is Madeline?” he asked turning to his friend.

“With Winona do not worry,” Ronald responded walking next to his friend. Being an officer he was more than accustom to stress situations but being under attack was something he hoped never to get accustom to. 

“Vitals on line.” They heard an officer said.

“… thank you,” said Kirk slightly awkward. Turning back to Ronald he took a deep breath. They had been best friend since they were children, and marrying two women who love each other as well had only made then closer. Working together on the same ship had been a dream of theirs since they first enter the academy. 

“The shuttle's pulling out of main bay, Sir.”

George moved toward the captain chair with Ronald by his side. “I want to see him -- floodlights please.”

After watching for a minute and monitoring his vitals the last thing any of them wanted to see happened. Their beloved Captain’s vital had gone flat and the ship was launching another attack. 

“They're launching again!” Officer Pitts turned back to the captain. While Kirk said, “Evasive! Evasive! Delta-Five maneuver! Fire full-spread!”

There was no way out of this and they all knew it. The U.S.S. Kelvin was going down and if Captain Kirk had anything to say about it, it would not take any more lives.

“I'm initiating General Order 13! Set self-destruct for maximum matter- antimatter yield! Two minute countdown!”

“Yessir!” he heard Pitts answer him.

“I want auto-pilot targeted for their fuel cells!”

“Sir, unable to locate the ship's power source!”

“Then just target the damn thing dead center!” Captain Kirk knew one thing if his ship was going down it was going to make as big of a hole in the other ship as possible.

“Kirk we have another problem,” Ronald said looking over some systems in the comm. “The auto pilot is destroyed. The only way we are going to ram that thing is with manual control.” He turn back to looked at his friend and could read his face without a doubt. 

With a determined look, George turned back to his crew… to his friends, “-- then I'll do it myself -- get to the shuttles, now!” As no one moved, Kirk turned to everyone and screamed, “THAT'S AN ORDER! GO!”

As everyone left with agony on their faces, George Kirk turned to his best friend who hadn’t moved.

“Go Ronald,” he said sitting on the Captain’s chair so he could send out a ship wide message. 

“There is nothing you could do that could possibly make me leave you here like this,” Ronald said sitting at the controls.

“All decks, this is the Captain speaking -- evacuate the ship immediately, get to your designated shuttle crafts –-- repeat: evacuate ship and get to designated shuttles. Now!”

Winona looked at her friend as the medics started moving her out of Med bay. She held on to Madeline as she listened to her husband’s voice.

“That's George's voice --what's happening?”

“Don’t worry he is probably getting everything ready to meet us at the shuttle. Hey Winona concentrate please you are literally bringing a human being into this world in the middle of a fight ok. This kid wants to be born now.” Madeline said as she moved with her friend around falling debris, smoke, and disaster. 

“George!” Winona said into her com as she opened it.  
“I have medical shuttle 37 standing by, get to it now -- can you do that?” George talked to his wife.

“Yes -- where are you?” Winona asked looking up at her friend with a smile. She had been right her husband was on her way. 

“I'm on my way,” she heard him say. 

“Good-- and George, it's coming—our baby, it's coming now.”

With a heavy heart, Ronald turned to his friend. He could see the devastation on George’s face. He knew how important this baby was for both George and Winona and knowing he was never going to be able to meet him was a horrible moment to witness. So he opened a communication channel with his wife. The same wife he knew he would never see again.

“Love are you there?” he asked.

Madeline heard her comm and walked a little farther away from her friend. They had just arrive at the shuttle and she was being well looked after. 

“Ronald, where are you?” she asked her husband.

“Love listen to me,” he said as he heard George talking in the background with the shuttle. He could tell her now there was no way she could get off the shuttle now. “I can’t leave. The auto pilot is ruined and I can’t leave him here.”

For a moment, Madeline had no idea what was going on and then she understood. That morning when she had kissed her husband when he left to work and she was still somewhat asleep was the last time she saw her husband. 

“Ronald what are you doing?” she asked knowing exactly what he was doing. Her husband loved her and would always choose her, but George Kirk was as close as blood. He was his brother. 

“Sorry love I have to do this,” he said his voice breaking as he heard George talking to his wife about the baby’s name. “Listen to me love no matter what happens; no matter where we are in the universe I will always love you. Do you hear me?”

Crying her heart out yet holding it together just to make this easier on both of them she said, “I know love. No matter what happens, you are the love of my life. I will see you in my dreams.”

“Remember; never leave anything on the heater unattended. Always make sure you have your communicator with you whenever you leave the house. Remember to turn the lights of the kitchen off you always leave them on.” The both smile as he talked. “I will always take care of you no matter where we are. I love you. Take care of Winona. Make sure you take care of each other. I love you…” were the last words Madeline ever heard her husband said.

She would never hear her husband’s voice again. Never feel his goodbye kiss because he would always leave first to work. He would never again called her when he was bored. And when they made it to earth and had their complete physical he would never found out she had been four months pregnant when he died with a little girl she named after his mother, Lydia Talbot.

Growing up being best friend with a boy was complicated. There was always that faze were girls had cutties. Then there was a time that every boy at school thought you were weird for being together all the time. There were times when you could even have problems with someone and trying to defend you your friend could always get in trouble. 

Then there was being friend with James T. Kirk. Being friends with James T. Kirk was all of that and more. Which is why she was sitting next to him while joy riding in a very beautiful and expensive classic corvette. The truth is though that she wouldn’t want to be anywhere else. As Jim turned up the radio, she smile and screamed aloud loving being there. Singing to a song that she was sure, she had heard her mom at some point sing herself. 

“Heyyyyyyyyy” Jim scream over the music making her turn back to him. Making a gesture to the roof, they moved with a grace of two people who had been moving together for years, and opened the convertible roof. Looking back, they watched as the roof was ripped from the car and tumbled through the air landing on the road. They turned to each other and started laughing. The truth was that no matter what they did or where they were a Kirk and Talbot would always have a good time together. 

That is when they heard it, the “bloop bloop” of a police cruiser. Lydia looked back at the cop and turn to Jim making a sign like keep going. Never let it be said that James T. Kirk was always the instigator. Seeing that the vehicle was not going to stop the cop pulled up beside the car only to see two kids inside it. 

“Son, you pull over that car!” He said over the pa, but the kids just blasted the radio louder.

“We CAN'T HEAR YOU!” Jim screamed back while he kept up driving.

The kids kept driving down the road until they saw it. The end of the road a place where both kids have been before. The place they had both been headed to since they got into the car. Looking at each other with a secretive smile, they started moving. They speed toward the edge closer and closer until the last second. Kirk slammed on the brakes and as the car skid both kids leaped from the car landing in a cloud of dust as the car fell of the cliff and exploded. Looking at each other, the kids bust out laughing because by the next day at this same hour they would be on another adventure. Looking back at the cop who had hopped off the hover cruiser, hand on weapon, they realized something. Maybe this time it wouldn’t be that easy. 

“What's your name, son?”

Without a thought he step forward to make sure the cop wouldn’t look at his friend too much trying to keep her safe. “My name's Kirk. James Tiberius Kirk.”

For years, James Tiberius Kirk and Lydia Talbot were the best friends any one could find. There was only one problem, Jim was always ready to be the irresponsible one and well, quite frankly, she was getting tired of it all. She was never going to turn down an adventure with Kirk, but it was starting to feel like earth was getting to be too small for her. That was why she was at the bar with the recruitment scout talking about the Academy and Starfleet. 

After hearing everything that Captain Pike had told her, she was starting to doubt her lifestyle. 

“Your father was a good man. He showed great courage and loyalty in the face of certain death,” he talked as they sat outside of the bar. He had decided to talked to her at the bar, and she was starting to worry that Jim would appear. This was after all one of their favorite bar, just like she was sure the federation knew. Is where they found her a few days before and it would be where they were going to try the same sales pitch they had on her. The only problem was that she knew Jim would never listened to them. 

“You should be proud of him.” Her father had always been a sensitive subject for her. Jim’s dad had died trying to save his family. Her dad had died so he wouldn’t leave a friend. She would die for Jim that was not questioned in any way but sometimes it made her think what would happened the day that she actually fell in love. 

“Look Captain Pike I appreciate the sale pitch just give me some time. It’s not every day that you have to make a life changing decision,” she said looking back at the bar where a fight seemed to have broken out. 

“Just think about it, I know it would be hard leaving everything behind, but think about something else. You could get a new family with the Federation. Just think about it.” As they started walking to the bar she thought about everything he had said. The truth was that the only family she had ever had was Jim. She loves her mother but half her life she had been completely absent and the other half she had been just an authority figure she barely listen to. She had no problem leaving behind her mother the woman had done the same thing to her.

She did have a problem leaving behind Jim. Jim who had been the only one there for her every day of her life. The Jim that when she had severe stomach ache one night he stole a car to take her to the medics and stayed with her every night she was at the hospital. The Jim who when her first boyfriend had cheated on her came to her house and spent hours just eating junk food and letting her vent for hours after he had beat the crap out of the guy. The same Jim that when he looked up after an ear splitting whistle that brought her back into reality she saw was bleeding. 

“Outside, all of you! NOW!” called out Pike who she was standing behind. The Cadets left as she moved to a semiconscious Jim.

As she started trying to right him, she smile down at him. “So how many were they today?”

“A few you know there is always the ones that jump in after the fight already started,” he said only how she was able to understand him Pike would never know. “You look weird,” said Jim turning to the man behind Lydia.

“Y'alright, Son?” the captain asked looking at the boy in front of him. 

“You can... whistle really loud, y'know that?” famous last word as Kirk passed out. 

“So this is him?” Captain Pike asked Lydia.

She turned toward him with a smile and was proud to say to this Captain of Starfleet. “Yes Captain Pike. This is James T. Kirk.”


	2. To The Academy

After Lydia was able to not only wake Jim up but also get him to be a little more coherent she sat him down to talk to Pike. She had to admit taking care of Jim was a full time job, but then again it was so much fun seeing him trying to be coherent enough to stand. The only thing she knew was that someday who ever had done this to Jim would pay for it. She just wished she would be able to see their faces that day. 

“I couldn't believe when the bartender told me who you are,” said Pike sitting next to Kirk who the bartender had giving another drink. They were regulars and many people seemed to respect them. So this fights were actually very unusual. She didn’t think he really minded the fight especially if as Kirk said he hadn’t started it.

“... and who am I, Captain Pike?” He asked looking back at Lydia who was tiding it up. He was mad that he couldn’t help her but the truth was he could barely stand. 

“Your father's son,” Lydia and Jim looked at each other and smiled. So the sale pitch had started. They had heard it all before. Whenever someone from Starfleet realized who he or she were, they had this whole speech ready for them. They sometimes wondered if it was a something that they showed every recruiter with the off chance they saw one of them. After all they were the children of legends. It stands to reason they would be wanted to be the crowning glory of any recruiter. With a smile Pike continued. “For my dissertation, I was assigned the U.S.S. Kelvin. Something I admired about your dad... he didn't believe in no-win scenarios.”

“He sure learned his lesson,” mutter Jim.

“Depends on how you define winning. You're here, aren't you? That instinct to leap without looking-- that was his nature, too. And in my opinion it's something Starfleet has lost. We're admirable, respectable. But overly-disciplined. Those cadets you took on, they'll make competent officers -- but you can bet your ass they'll run home to momma the minute they're looking down the barrel of a Klingon phaser cannon.”

“-- why are you talking to me?” asked Jim turning to the guy next to him.

“I looked up your file while you were drooling on the floor. Your aptitude tests were off the charts-- what is it, d'you like being the only Genius Level repeat-offender in the Midwest?”

“Maybe I love it,” he said with a smile back to Lydia who had sat at one of the tables looking at something in her hands. 

“So your daddy dies… you can settle for a less than ordinary life…or do you feel like you’re meant for something better? Something special?”

“Come to think of it, I do want to feel special. You know what? I’m gonna go start a book club… Lydia what do you think?” he asked turning completely to her. 

Without looking up from whatever she had in her hands, she said without missing a beat. “Whatever, just don’t make me read any classics.”

“Enlist in Starfleet,” said Pike like the interaction between them hadn’t happen.

“Enlist? You must be way down on your recruiting quota for the month,” Kirk turned back to Pike.

“If you are half the man your father was, Jim, Starfleet could use you. You could be an officer in four years, have your own ship in eight.”

“We’re even right? I can go.”

“Riverside shipyard. Shuttle for new recruits leaves tomorrow, 0800. Your father was captain of a Starship for twelve minutes. I dare you to do better,” As he walked out Pike turned to Lydia who by now was looking at them. “You think about what we talked about this afternoon as well Ms. Talbot. Having you at Starfleet would be a great addition.”

With that, Captain Pike walked out leaving behind a bomb between two best friends who now had a lot to talk about. 

Jim followed Lydia all the way back to her house. He had been trying to get her to talk to him all the way back. She walked through the door leaving it opened knowing he would follow her in. 

“What did he mean Lydia? When did you two talked?” He said waiting for her to put her jacket in the closet.

“This afternoon, didn’t you hear?” she asked walking out of the closet into the kitchen almost slamming the door in his face. 

Standing outside the door, he asked, “What did you talked about?”

Coming out with some water for both her and Jim, she gave him a bottle. “Here drink. You know about what, the same thing as always.”

They walked to the second floor one behind the other. As she walked into her room, he stayed outside while she changed her street clothes.

“Yeah that in not an answer. He made it seem like it was a done deal. Lydia what is going on?” 

Finally, she opened the door.

“Ok, so maybe… I am… reconsidering some things,” she said as she walked back down the stairs to make sure everything was closed up. 

“Like what? What could he have said to make you change your mind after so many years?” he asked walking after her like a puppy. For a moment, he stopped ad shook his head trying to clear his own thoughts.

“Ok here it goes,” she said stopping at the bottom of the stairs turning back to him. “Jim yeah I have for years cried out against the fleet, but I am tired. Have you ever wonder what made our mothers literally abandon us for that fleet after what happened with our fathers? Have you ever thought about the place our parent all describe as one of the most amazing place in the universe. We are literally stuck in the middle of nowhere America, US. The two people in this entire place who wanted to leave more than anyone else, and somehow we ended up stuck here. I want to know what is so amazing about space that both my parent left me for it. Don’t you?”

Sitting next to her on the stairs Jim felt how her head fell on his shoulder.

“So what you were going to leave me here then. Be abandon by you as well like you say?”

“Jim I would never leave you behind that is the problem. You think I would stay in the middle of nowhere doing the same thing every day if you weren’t important to me? If you actually meant nothing to me this place wouldn’t have been home it would have been nothing more than a stop on the map.”

Taking a moment, they just sat there next to each other. The problem about being best friends was doing things that maybe you really didn’t want to, to make someone else happy. Jim knew that. He had been there on their first day of school walking hand in hand into the room. He had hated his mother for forcing him, until he realized she was trembling. From that day on he decided if something made her happy even if he hated doing every second of it he would do it just for her. 

“Does it mean that I am going to have to use that stupid uniform?” he asked her. 

“Well look at it this way you are probably going to be Captain so that means you will probably use the yellow uniform. I will go into engineering. That’s red all the way,” she said picking her head from Jim’s shoulder with a smile. 

“Oh no. You are so not going to use that cursed uniform. You could use purple for all I care, any color you want, I will make it a rule. You could use any color you want,” they started laughing with each other. The red uniform curse was something that everyone talked about. 

“Ok so question of the night,” Jim turned to her looking down at his best friend. 

“What?” she asked smiling up at her best friend.

“Are you really going to send me back to my house or could I stay over?”

She laughed as she stood and started pulling him up to the bedroom. “Fine, but if you start snoring I will lock you out of the room.”

“But are you going to give me a side of the bed?”

“No way! That is my bed the best I could do is give you some space on the floor and only if you don’t snore.”

“And this is how you treat me on the last day on this planet after I am leaving everything behind for you?”

The world or better yet the universe was never going to see them coming. 

The next day both friends got ready to leave the house and take on the universe. They had to stop at Kirk’s house for him to get everything he needed and they left without looking back. They took Jim’s motorcycle for one last ride. The bike had been their allied on more than one occasion and it was almost poetic that she was the one delivering them to Starfleet.

As they got to the ship shard Kirk turned off the bike. Getting off Jim and Lydia looked at the shipyard where a starship was being constructed.

“You know,” she said looking at Jim. “We could be on that ship one day.”

The universe had a way of laughing at them with affection since they were looking at what one-day would be the U.S.S. Enterprise.

As they walked to the ship that would take them away from nowhere Midwest a man that was walking near turned to look at the bike saying “nice ride, man.”

With a smile Kirk tossed the guy the start card and told him to, “live it up.” Passing Pike he took Lydia’s hands.

“Four years? I’m gonna do it in three.” With a grin at Captain Pike, both friends walked into the shuttle. Walking in Kirk hit his head in a low ceiling making Lydia laugh.

“What just because you are barely 5 feet tall.”

“Excuse you! I am 5’3”. I may be small, but the best things come in small packages. You know like perfume… and poison.”

He laughed taking a seat next to her near the girl Kirk had seen at the bar completely ignoring the idiots from the bar.

“Never did get that first name.”

With a grin, Uhura turned to them. Lydia had actually met her already. The girl seemed nice if a little entitle. Then again, if everything she had heard about Uhura was true then her attitude was warranted. She had seen the way she smiled at Kirk and realized that this girl wasn’t going to fall for everything Kirk was but his charm was still working on her. 

“And you never will.”  
With a smile, Kirk starts buckling himself in when he feels Lydia trying to get his attention. As he turned to her Lydia made a motion toward the back where a man was being force out of the bathroom.

“Are you people deaf? I told you I don’t need a doctor, damnit! I AM A DOCTOR!”

“I can’t decide if he looks like a southern lilt or a prisoner waiting for the execution,” she whispered to him. She was so close that Lydia’s hair tickle his nose. It smelled like coconut. 

Shaking his head Kirk turned to the officer and the man fighting. 

“You need to find a seat!”

“I had one, in the bathroom, with no windows. I suffer from Aviaphobia, in case you don’t understand big words, it means feat of dying in something that flies.”

“Sir sit down!” Having finally steered him to the only available seat, which was the one next to Kirk staring at the man until he did sit. 

Turning to Kirk with a look that spelled trouble, he said, “I might throw up on you.”

Leaning away from the man towards Lydia Kirk tried to calm him in the only way he knew. Talking.

“I think these things are pretty safe.”

“Don't pander to me, kid: one tiny crack in the hull and our blood boils in thirteen seconds – solar flare might crop up, cook is in our seats. Hell, some of the damn passengers are blue. And wait’ll you’re sitting pretty with a case on Andorian shingles, see if you’re still so relax when your eyeballs are bleeding. Space is disease and danger, wrapped in darkness and silence.”

“I hate to break this to you,” Kirk tried with a look of amusement toward Lydia who was trying really hard not to laugh in his face. “But Starfleet operates in space.”

“Yeah, well my ex-wife took the whole damn planet in the divorce, I got nowhere to go but up. All she left me was my Bones. Leonard McCoy.”

“Jim Kirk and this girl here that hasn’t stop laughing since you sat down is Lydia Talbot.” Lydia smile at the man and waved sitting back in her sit. She could here Kirk whisper to Bones, “-- you really gonna throw up--?” 

“Maybe,” said Bones. With a snort, she had to wonder where this new adventure would lead them.


	3. How An Starfleet Engineer  Actually Works

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Three years later we see Lydia and Jim take on the Starfleet Academy

Three years later, she wished she had her answer, but she didn’t. What she did know was that Kirk was insane and she had a lot of studying to do. She had to talk to Uhura about something that had to do with a comm device; she wanted to checked in the lab because they said that they needed her help. Studying to be an engineer was something she had always thought about. Actually being one was a dream come true. She hadn’t thought that meant that every one of her friends would use her as fix it all. 

She had been walking the academy grounds when she saw her two favorite men coming towards her. For the last three years, her life had been a dream. These last few days had been impossible though. Kirk had fail a test. A test that everyone failed, that was the whole point of the test. Yet for some reason Kirk had decided he would be the first person to pass it. Even if that meant being the only person to fail it more than once. 

“So you’ll do it for me, right?” said Kirk as he walked up to Lydia putting an arm around her. He had been talking to McCoy about the Kobayashi Maru. He needed to pass that test it had become an obsession to him. 

“I have no interest,” he said without looking up from the papers he was looking through. Jim had been trying to convince him for hours. He was hoping having Lydia around might actually get Jim off him. 

“I didn’t ask if you have interest, I asked if you’d do it,” Kirk said taking something from Lydia’s hands who had been trying to open a candy bar with her arms full. The same candy bar that Jim took, opened, took a bite and gave back to her. “Here.”

“Thanks,” she said smiling up at him. She hadn’t eaten anything in hours, she was starting to feel the effects, and if she was supposed to get to the lab and finish another project she had on hold she needed to, well, not faint. 

“I’m about to ask you an obvious question: why bother?” said McCoy. He had seen it once more, that smile that seem to linger whenever either one of his two friends looked at each other. It was funny because it almost took Jim a whole moment to look away from Lydia. McCoy wasn’t really sure if either of them had notice, but lately the looks were longer and more intense than normal. Jim could look at her for hours as Lydia worked. Just like Lydia could spent hours listening to Jim telling people the same story over and over again. Uhura and McCoy had been watching them for some time now. 

“Because I've failed the test twice,” Jim said as if it was the most obvious thing to say. 

“And you’re determined to make it three. We’ve all failed it – everyone has, and that’s the point! No one goes back for seconds, let alone thirds – it’s not like you need to pass it to graduate.”

“So why do they make us take it Bones?” Kirk asked.

“Don’t call me Bones.”

“Because,” Lydia said, speaking up for the first time trying to stop the argument she knew was coming. “They are trying to teach us that there are some situations you can’t get out of. You know no win scenarios.”

“Yeah well I don’t believe in no win scenarios,” Kirk turned with a smile toward her. 

“Yeah I know that’s why I will be there,” said Lydia. She had no problem with trying to help Kirk pass for a third time. Besides, if she was there she could make fun of him for failing once more. She had to admit it was one of her favorite pass times. 

With a kiss to her forehead Kirk said, “You are the best. See Bones that’s why she is my favorite.”

“Yeah that’s why,” McCoy mutter with a look at his friends. It had nothing to do with who Lydia was and what she meant to Jim. Then he seemed to remember what Jim called him once more. “I told you to stop calling me that. You’re very annoying.” 

“Thank you Bones,” he walking away.

“Kirk you need to study this time,” Lydia said looking up at Kirk.

“Actually I got a date,” he said. 

“A date? Listen as smart as you are, which ain’t much, if you don’t prepare…” said McCoy. This was the James Kirk he knew. Sometimes he had to wonder though if Kirk just did this to annoy Lydia or he actually didn’t realized how she didn’t like it when he talked about dates. To be fair no girl had ever been more important than Lydia. When she called; he came running that was it no matter what. Any girl who thought that she could get rid of Lydia was in for a rude awakening. Jim had literally walked away from girls who had tried to talk bad about her without a second glance. Still he had to wonder when Kirk was going to realized that he loved his best friend.

“You have no idea how prepared I’m gonna be, no idea,” and with a smile Kirk left them on the steps watching him go.

“He is so going to fall flat on his face isn’t he?” McCoy asked Lydia who smile up at him. 

“Oh yeah, but the best part is that we are going to be there to see it happen.” With a laugh, they walked off. 

McCoy and Lydia had develop a good relationship through the years. He had actually given her some first aid training and everything, completing the basic the academy gave them. Through the years, she had become like his little sister. As they walked back into the Academy, they kept talking about everything they were working on at the moment. She may had been a little brunette but McCoy had realized she was just as insane a Kirk and that she had the tools to make things happen. That actually scared him more. After all half, or more, of Kirk’s plans wouldn’t work if he didn’t have a little evil genius that could help him carry them out.

Lydia was mad, she was really mad. The stupid thing was supposed to fit and it didn’t. Here she had been the whole night trying to finish this stupid step, just one-step and she couldn’t get the mechanism to fit into its proper place. Therefore, she started doing the one thing every engineer qualified on every level of the academy could think about always does when something doesn’t fit. She pounded on it like there was no tomorrow. 

“Well is a good thing that the future of Starfleet is in such careful and delicate hands.” With a glare, she turned to her friend who had just walked in.

“Yeah well,” she said turning back to the stupid mechanism. “At least this one will not explode if I keep hitting it,” she said going back to hitting it.

“Yeah we wouldn’t want that now would we?” Uhura said as she sat next to her friend.

The girls had become friends their first year in the academy when they had been dorm neighbors. It had become clear pretty early on that Uhura’s roommate was a little too liberal. So, when Uhura was without a room to stay she had found a place to crash with Lydia and they had become best friends pretty easily. It help that no guy wanted to actually have a whole relationship with Lydia because they all knew that Kirk was already half in love with her and wouldn’t go there. Even if neither Kirk nor Lydia would admit to any feelings themselves.

“I’m going to the long range sensor lab is there any way I can convince you to stop pounding on this and come with me?” Uhura asked her picking up something that at one point resemble a part of the ship. 

“I can’t I am looking into a new calibration for the new ship going into deep space travel. If I could find the right combination I might just be able to finish this before tomorrow morning.”

“Lydia you do remember that you are not the only engineer working on this. Plus you have two other projects they are asking you to look into. You need a break,” Uhura said taking her friends hand and pulling her away. She needed to get her friend away from her toys, now.

“I know, I know.” Finally looking away from the mess that used to be a motherboard. She had been so stress about this whole thing it was insane. She really wanted to stop for like an hour, just long enough that every cable and every code didn’t jumble in her head. 

“Uhura look, I can’t right now I swear. You are going to be at the lab the whole night though right?” 

“Yeah.”

“So I’ll come around in like three hours and I promise I will bring caffeine, enough for the whole night.”

If you wanted to say something about Lydia was that she was one of the hardest working engineers in the program. She had been in Starfleet the whole of three year and she already had consultation request from other systems. She lived up to her name too. If she said, she was going to help you she never let you down. So with a last smile Uhura looked at her friend and decided to let her be. 

“Alright, but you have promise caffeine and I will expect it. Don’t make me come find you.” With a laugh, she started leaving the lab only to look back at her friend. Except for the height and the skin color they could pass for sisters. Lydia was so small Uhura sometimes forgot that she could take care of herself. She had seen this girl take on guys that wouldn’t take no for an answer, and she had done it without breaking a sweat. Still if she hadn’t arrived at the lab in two hours she was going to send someone for her. 

As Uhura left, Lydia decided to take a minute break from the board in front of her. It was so hard to keep herself upright when she stood up. Her legs felt like gelatin. As she got something to drink, she heard her computer ping. Well back to work, the code was not going to test itself. With a shake of her head, she sat back down at her desk. She really needed to rest. 

There was something to be said about Uhura. She was a good friend there was no question about that, but she could get as wrap up as anyone else. She only remembered about Lydia as she watch Kirk trying to save face after finding him with her roommate. 

“Shit,” she said trying to put her clothes back on. She was supposed to make sure Lydia didn’t pass the night in the lab and here she was. 

“What? I said I am leaving,” Kirk said putting on his pants.

“Not you idiot, Lydia. She never came to see me last night like she promised and I am pretty sure she passed the night at her lab.” As she talked, she turned to Kirk to explain why she was leaving again only to find herself looking at the door as it close with Kirk leaving a determined look on his face. 

“Kirk wait..! I can’t believe he left after you said you were leaving. I swear that girl has something on him.” Yes, Uhura was a good friend, which is why as her roommate turned away from her Uhura picked a pillow and hit her with it.

“Shut up.” 

As Kirk entered the lab he wasn’t really sure what he was going to find. Lydia was a mess when she spent a whole night at the lab and he definitely didn’t want her to be mad at him for touching something he shouldn’t have. Kirk found her asleep on top of a pile of stuff in a position that he knew could not possibly be comfortable. 

“Lydia,” he said moving next to her. Her hair was in her face and he took a moment to brush it back. “Lydia wake up.” She stirred a little and started to wake up. “There you are,” he said with a smile as she opened her eyes. 

“Well there could be worst things to wake up to.” He laughed and helped her to get up. 

Just as she was standing, she fell again and Kirk almost had a heart attack. “Lydia, my god what is wrong?”

“Haven’t eating anything all night sorry,” she said sitting back down on her chair.

“I thought that the agreement to staying here all night was that you had to eat and have something to drink,” he said pulling a chair closer to make sure that he was sitting close enough to her. He wasn’t going to let he fall out her chair as well. “Do you want me to tell Bones that you aren’t listening to him? That would knock you out of first place for being his favorite you know.” He smile when Lydia looked at him with her own little smile. It had been a struggle their whole lives. He took care of her that was his most important job nothing else mattered. Yet here she was not being taken care of. 

“I brought food… I swear… it’s just… I didn’t eat it.”

“Yeah well unfortunately for you that’s not how food works.” He said looking around trying to see where her dinner was. She needed something in her system, soon. 

Guessing what he was looking for Lydia pointed to a place behind him and said, “it’s over there.”

Turning around Kirk saw what he was looking for and decided that she seemed stable enough for him to go get it. Making sure Lydia wouldn’t fall in the three seconds it would take him to get her food he stood almost ran there and back. 

Getting a small laugh from Lydia, he started getting everything ready so she could eat something.

“What are you laughing about might I ask?” He asked as he passed the utensils to her so she could start eating. “Oh and make sure you eat everything or I will call Bones down here to make him look you over.”

As she started eating her dinner/breakfast she looked at Kirk. 

“Nothing just thinking that I have seen you do that with more grace.”

“Yes well every other time I wasn’t trying to make sure you didn’t fall of your chair in completely exhaustion. The fruit too.”

“I wasn’t going to fall out of my chair. I was just dizzy that is all,” she said taking a big bite out of her orange almost like she was trying to make a point to him.

“Yeah well I remember that the last time you spent the night here you swore to us all that you would not let yourself go hungry. Am I going to have to spend my nights here now? Should Bones and I take turns?”

“Yesh calm down, I am a lot better now. It just that last night I had so many thing and the simplest one was working and I just wanted to… you know…”

“No I don’t know. You are important and everything blah blah blah. I am pretty sure that Starfleet wouldn’t like it if you decided to collapse from exhaustion so you can’t do this any more.” He was worry. Kirk didn’t have to tell her or any one really how worry he gets with her. She was brilliant one of the most important minds in the fleet so she got a lot of projects from personal to consulting. Sometimes he wondered if Lydia even wanted to have so many people asking for her help like this but she wasn’t one to turn anything away. 

“So what wasn’t working for you last night?” She had finished her dinner and was now on the last of her orange so he thought it would be all right to ask her now. 

Without looking, she grabbed something from her desk and put it in his hands. It was a mess of wires by now and he wasn’t even sure what it was or what it did.

“So at the risk of sounding stupid and embarrassing myself in front of you so you finally realize that I am not as awesome as you seem to think…what the heck is this?”

Lydia laughed as she looked at him. He was trying so hard she knew but he was no engineer and even so, a mess of wires on a board would only made sense to the person who made it. 

“Nice laugh at your friend that was so worried about you that he sat next to you while you finished eating.”

“It’s nothing until it fits in here,” she said pointing at something behind her. “Once it’s in place it’s going to help with the air filtration system on the ships so that it doesn’t over …” she stopped looking at Kirk who had a strange face at that moment. “It’s going to make it easier for the filters to do their job without taking so much energy. But the stupid piece will not fit in the place it’s supposed to and I can’t make it smaller, before you ask,” she said with a smile. 

“Well there goes my only solution then,” Kirk said giving it back to Lydia. “How are you felling now?” 

Lydia took a minute to stretch in the chair before she even attempted to stand. “Yeah I am good.” Her body had fallen asleep at a funny angle and she was definitely going to feel it later but until then yeah she was good.

“Well that is good,” said Kirk as he stood with her still trying to make sure she didn’t fall over. “Seriously Lydia,” he said taking her hands in his. “Don’t do this again please. You may not believe it but there are more than a few people who would be very mad at you if this ever happened again. So please, just take care of yourself. That’s all we want.” 

Lydia had to smile up at him. She knew Kirk cared for her more than anyone else did. They had been abandon to each other while they were really young, and that had made feel like they were all each other had. 

“Jim don’t worry I promise I will take care of myself. Never going to happen again.”

“Yeah right come on,” Kirk said pushing her out of the lab to get her some sunlight. He laughed when he heard her laughing. He wouldn’t admit this, ever, but that sound was definitely one of his favorites.


	4. Kobayashi Maru

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Kobayashi Maru is a very important test at the Academy that it’s only point was to fail. So how did Kirk actually pass? Now the Academy is looking into it, but Lydia is never one to betray a friend. Especially Jim.

There they were, one more time, at the Kobayashi Maru test that Kirk was taking for the third time. Lydia had to wonder if Kirk just liked being punished. After all who goes back for seconds let alone third when you know the outcome. There was something about the definition of insanity there she was sure. She was sitting at what would be the engineer liaison comm hearing Uhura talking about how they had just receive a distress signal from the ship. 

"Starfleet Command has ordered us to rescue them... Captain," Kirk turned to Uhura with such a cocky smirk Lydia was sure Uhura was using every training she had ever receive to stop herself from slapping him. It wasn’t a secret that Uhura barely tolerated Kirk and it was mostly because of Lydia. Uhura would never have anything hurt their friendship. 

“Klingon vessels have entered the Neutral Zone. And they are firing upon us,” said McCoy from his own comm.

“That’s okay,” Kirk replied.

“That’s ok?” she had to ask. What was Jim doing? Was he not even trying to get back at the programmers of the test? Was that his revenge to do nothing?

“Yeah don’t worry about it Lydia,” Kirk turned to Lydia with smile and a wink. Everyone turned to her with curious looks. She had no idea what was going on either which she made completely obvious when she shrugged her shoulders. 

“Three more Klingon Warbirds decloaking and targeting our ship, I don’t suppose this is a problem either?” McCoy question Kirk again.

“Nah.”

“Um Captain,” Lydia said trying to understand Jim’s plan. “They are firing.”

“Alert medical bay to prepare to receive all crew members from the damaged ship.” Kirk said still not seeming like he cared.

“And how do you expect us to rescue them when we're surrounded by Klingons?”

“Alert medical.” Annoyed Uhura turned to do what she was told, though her face was anything but relax. 

“Our ship is being hit, shields at sixty percent,” Lydia told him. 

“I understand,” he replied giving her a look.

“Should we at least, I dunno, fire back?” “No.” “Of course not,” she was starting to get annoyed at Jim. She had a lot to do and if he wasn’t going to take it seriously she was going to be so mad at him for wasting her time.

Just then, something happened. Everything on the bridge died, the systems crashed and everything went dark. For a moment, she had no idea what had happened and then everything came back. She looked up and around seeing everyone’s confusion. Everyone’s except Jim’s. It wasn’t really hard to figure out Jim already knew it was going to happened.

“The Kobayashi Maru is still in distress... but... the Klingons stopped firing,” Uhura said as she worked her comm.

“Arm photon. Prepare to fire on the Klingon warbirds,” said Kirk finally looking he was getting into the test.

“Jim, their shields are up,” McCoy said.

“Are they?” he asked with a look at him.

“...no”

“Fire on all enemy ships... one photon each should do. Let’s not waste ammunition,” Jim told her. Lydia turned around and started doing as he said. 

“Target lock acquired on all warbirds, firing!” 

Lydia watched as all five Klingon ships were destroyed instantly. 

“Begin rescue of the stranded crew. So. We've eliminated all enemy ships, no one on board was injured and the successful rescue of the Kobayashi Maru crew is underway,” looking up at the testing room windows Kirk smirked. “Anything else?”

Lydia had spent another night at the engineering lab. She had been there for an hour before Jim appeared with something for her to eat and some academy material for himself. 

“You know you don’t have to come here every night now right?”

“I will stop coming when you prove to me you can take care of yourself. Until then…” he said getting into his studies.

She knew what people said. They talked about how Jim took the academy as a joke that he never studied. If everyone only knew. Jim did dedicate time and effort to his studies. Because no matter what he was going to make his father proud and that meant being one of the best. So, they spent the night talking and studying. Most of all they spent it together and laughing at each other. Because no matter what they were them and no one was going to take it from them. 

Which was why when she finally collapse on her bed she wanted to murder the person at the other side of her door who decided that pounding on it was not a bad idea. She would so make whoever was one the other side regret this. At least that was the idea until she opened the door and found two Starfleet officers on the other side of her door.

Lydia was seating in front of the Academy President in his office with Captain Pike on one side and Commander Spock on the other. She had never had a problem with Spock. More often than not, she just didn’t understand how someone who was supposed to be half human could live with so little emotions. After all, she had seen him with Uhura who she knew the man care about more than was allowed and still he barely showed it. She couldn’t doubt the man cared for Uhura, but if it was someone else she would have questioned it.

“Cadet, can you please identify this,” the president said turning a small tablet he had in front of him towards her. On the screen was a code that she had never seen before, but she had an idea of its use. 

“It’s a code, Sir,” she replied reading over the code.

“What kind of code?”

“The kind used as a virus,” she replied reading the code. She knew exactly what the code was, what it did, and who had written it. Now the problem was how she was going to get him out of this. Why hadn’t he told her what he was going to do? 

“Can you identified who has written the code?”

“Sir?”

“Ms. Talbot you are one of our best coder. So I will asked you once more can you identified who has written the code?” 

Lydia was stuck. She really didn’t want to betray Jim. She knew why he had done it. She also knew that was the only way you could actually win that stupid test. She looked up at Spock and had to wonder if he had been the one to make the test and if so why wasn’t he the one doing the investigation. That’s when she figured it out. They knew. They knew who had done it, that’s why they had asked her to the office. This wasn’t because they couldn’t figure out who had done it, it was to figure out if she had been involve. They couldn’t accused her in a formal hearing without any proof so they did this.

“Sir I can’t tell you exactly who has done this. Every coder has a signature code. Something that could identified who wrote it. Tis one doesn’t have one.”

“No it does not. Then again not many hacker leave a signature behind Ms. Talbot.” Spock said looking at her. 

“The best I can tell you sir,” she continued looking at the president. “Is that whoever wrote this did it in such a way as to leave a minimal print as possible.”

“Yet there is some?”

“It seem to have come from a cadet’s computer.”

“Which cadet? Can you tell?”

“That’s something else entirely. Whoever upload the virus certainly didn’t make it.”

“Then who made it cadet?” For a moment, she looked at the president in front of her and she realized what they wanted. They wanted a clean case. They wanted to have someone, anyone, stand trial. The president didn’t really mind if she went down with Kirk because to him if Kirk had been at fault so was her. One wasn’t without the other.

“I’m sorry sire am I being accused of something?” She was a lot of thing but she wasn’t about to take the wrap for something she didn’t do.

“Nobody is accusing you of anything Lydia. We just need the truth.”

“So here it is,” she said looking straight at Pike. “This code was made in a public computer by someone who knew enough to make it generic, but not enough to know you could achieve the same result in ten lines less. They send it to a cadet computer because of the close network some computers have with the academy. Then they used it as unsubtle way as possible to disrupt a test, which by the way is stupid, that nobody likes. If you want me to figure out who wrote it it’s going to take some more time.”

“Understood,” said the president sitting back in his chair.

“Good. Now if you excuse me I have been in the engineering lab the whole night and I could really use a rest.”

“Yes of course Lydia. Thank you,” said Pike. She stood and with a farewell walked out of the room. Just outside the door she could hear them talking. “I told you she wouldn’t accused anyone least of all Kirk.”

“The cadet has violated the ethical code of conduct and deserves to be confronted with an accusation.”

“He will be Spock; I am sorry Pike I now you brought them in.”

“Cadet Kirk has proven that he is one of the best we have in this Academy. That he should be punished for breaking the ethical code, I concurred, but let it be fair and reflect everything he has done here as well.”

Lydia could hear them coming so she left the office. She needed to find Jim and she needed to do it as soon as possible.

“James T. Kirk. Step forward,” the president called Jim in front of the Academy. Lydia had been able to get to Jim and told him everything. Five hundred cadets and Jim was going to have to defend himself in front of all of them. They looked at each other as Kirk stood up and walked toward the front.


	5. The Lighting Storm in Space

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A lighting storm in space that changed Jim and Lydia’s lives is back once more. Now they have a race towards Vulcan to rescue the planet

“An incident has occurred today that concerns the entire student body. Academic immorality by one is an assault on us all. It will. Not. Stand. Cadet Kirk, evidence has been submitted to this council suggesting you violated the ethical code of conduct pursuant to regulation 17.43 of the Starfleet code. Is there anything you care to say before we begin?”

“Yes sir. I believe I have the right to face my accuser directly,” Kirk talked into the mic. They had discuss everything he had to do, what he had to say to make sure that everything was at least fair.

The president nodded towards someone in the crowd and Spock stood up and walked to the front standing next to Kirk. Lydia wasn’t sure what was going to happen but she was sure this was going to change Jim’s life whether for better or worst she wasn’t sure. 

It was a long discussion on the right and wrong, on cheating, and if Lydia was being completely honest, she really did think that Jim could actually get out of this one. They hadn’t presented any evidence against him that was irrefutable. She looked to Pike on the other side. His eyes were fixed on Kirk. This was his boy. Lydia knew he cared about them. They were his recruit, his pride and joy, and he was invested. That’s when she heard it. She could not believe that Spock had done it. With one sentence he had taken everything Jim and Lydia were and had made it into a joke. 

“You of all peoples should know, Cadet Kirk, a captain cannot cheat death.”

It was like the whole assembly had gone cold. Did Spock really believed that saying that type of thing was all right? She could see Jim, who had turned enough towards her that she could see him; his face looked like he had been punched. 

“I off all people?”

“Your father, Lieutenant George Kirk, had assumed command of his vessel before he was killed in action, did he not?”

There it was. It was a whispered secret that everyone talked about. It was the worst kept secret in the academy because everyone knew. The legacies that attended the academy. James T Kirk and Lydia Talbot the children of the heroes of the Kelvin. 

“How long did it take you to look that up? And to get the information wrong. My father died a Captain.” Kirk asked completely rigid. 

“How long did it take you to program the virus that allowed you to cheat?” 

“Maybe you just don’t like that I beat your test.”

“I am Vulcan. Like is not a verb in our vernacular. I’ve simply made the logical deduction that you are a liar.”

“What an idiot I am for taking that personally,” Kirk said sarcastically. He could not understand this guy at all. What was his problem? 

“Agreed,” Spock said. Apparently, he didn’t understand sarcasm either. “Furthermore, you have failed to divine the purpose of the test.”

“Enlighten me again.”

“The purpose is to experience fear. Fear in the face of certain death. To accept that fear and maintain command of one’s self and one’s crew. This is a quality expected in every Starfleet captain.”

“So you are telling me the point of this test is to experience fear,” Kirk said standing a little bit straighter. “You keep reminding me that you’re a Vulcan. And I’m sure you’re really proud of that, who wouldn’t be, but isn’t it true you people don’t experience fear at all? And if that's the case -- What's that say about your ability to make command decisions?”

Unfortunately, Spock never got a chance to respond because at that moment a redshirt burst into the hall. Everyone watched as he ran to the Academy President giving him an information that the President read, and turned to the whole assembly. 

“We’ve received a distress call from Vulcan. Every cadet must report to Shuttle Hangar One immediately. This hearing is at recess until further notice, dismiss.”

Both Lydia and McCoy move to stand with Kirk as everyone start moving around them in frantic motions. 

“Who was that pointy eared bastard?” Kirk asked his friends as they watched Spock disappear.

“I don’t know but I like him.” The three friends walked away with a smile at McCoy’s remark.

Cadets ran around rushing to wherever they had to go. Lydia and Uhura were standing together waiting to be call. Lydia had no doubt she would end up at the Enterprise. She was the best in her year and had actually work on the design of the ship. She and Uhura knew where they were going to be. So it was a huge surprise when the officer called their names and Uhura was actually station in the Farragut. Lydia turned to Uhura completely confuse.

“What the hell?” Uhura asked herself looking around.

“Ny what is going on I thought…”

“So did I,” she said still looking around like she was actually looking for someone. “Wait come with me,” she said pulling Lydia after her as she literally ran over cadets to get where she wanted. 

As she was pulled around by Uhura, she saw Bones and Jim walking away as well. They ended up looking after each other but they had been pulled different ways so they couldn’t even talked to each other. Then again, Lydia wasn’t going to stop Uhura wherever they were going. She looked ready for murder. 

Finally, it seemed she found who she was looking for because she stopped next to Spock still holding Lydia’s arm. 

“Commander, a word?” Uhura said making Spock move away from some officers almost like, he knew they were going to need the privacy. Again, Uhura pulled Lydia after her. 

“Yes, Lieutenant?”

“Was I not one of your top students?” and away they went again. Wonder if Spock was running from Uhura or he had something very important to take care of. Lydia was betting on the first. 

“Indeed you were…”

“Did I not receive a Gold rating for exolinguistic skills, giving Starfleet first place over Kyoto and MIT at the Oxford Invitational?” “An exceptional achievement, to be su…” “and did I not, on multiple occasions, demonstrate exceptional aural sensitivity and, I quote, "unparalleled ability to identify sonic anomalies" in subspace transmission tests?!” “Consistently, yes…” “And while you were well aware that my unqualified desire was to serve on the U.S.S. Enterprise, I was assigned to the Farragut.”

Lydia was standing between these two seeing how Uhura manipulated Spock the way she wanted and she loved every second of it. He even looked embarrassed, or as close to as Spock could manage. 

“It was an attempt to avoid the appearance of favoritism.” 

Lydia snorted. Even if the whole academy knew that these two had a thing, which she was almost sure they did, no one would accused Spock of favoritism. First Uhura had more qualifications than even some of the active cadets that were working on the ships right now. Second, it was Spock. Hearing her snort Spock turned to look at her giving Uhura a chance to get closer to him. 

“No. I am assigned to the Enterprise.”

“I would do as she said, just in case you ask me.”

Spock turned once more to Uhura. Their eye held for a second before Spock checked his tablet and made the change. 

“Yes, I believe you are,” he said in the same even voice. 

With a smile and a thank you Uhura turned and pulled Lydia away to make sure they could get down to the Enterprise before someone decided to leave without them, all the while Lydia was holding her laughter in. She didn’t know what would happen with their friendship in the next few years but she would never bet against Uhura that’s for sure. 

It had taken sometime for her commander to find where Lydia was supposed to go. They had send her into the vowel of engineering but this girl had enough qualifications to be running the whole department. Because of this, she had missed the announcement of what they were supposed to find once they arrived at Vulcan. So it was more than a little surprise when she saw not only Kim but Bones and Uhura running towards her. For a moment she wanted to joke about who had died, that was until she saw Jim and the fact that she was pretty sure he wasn’t supposed to have such a big tongue. 

“Jim? What the hell happened to you?”

He had finally arrived and was trying to get her to concentrate on him. If anyone was going to understand him it would be her. 

“He got like this because of something with a Romulan ship and the message.” Uhura said trying to tell Lydia what had happened.

“What message? I wasn’t here so didn’t really hear anything.”

Jim’s eyes opened comically enough then he turned to the monitor and got the message out. She would understand, he knew she would.

“A storm in space…”

It was everything Lydia had to hear. She knew what Jim was trying to tell her now, and they needed to get to the bridge or they would all be dead. Taking Jim’s hand in hers they started running with Uhura and Bones once more behind them. 

When the bridge doors opened they ran in and without missing a beat Jim yell “Captain Pike, sir, we have to stop this ship.”

“Mr. Kirk! How the hell did you get on board the Enterprise?” Pike asked turning toward the new people on the bridge.

McCoy trying to save the situation stepped in, “This man is under the influence of a severe reaction to a vaccine. He is delusional and I take full responsibility for…”

“Vulcan isn’t experiencing a natural disaster; it’s being attacked, by Romulans.”

“Cadet Kirk,” Captain Pike said. “I think you've had enough attention for one day. Dr. McCoy, return to medical, we'll have words later.”

“Yes Sir.” Lydia had to give it to Bones. He didn’t deserved to be talked like that yet he didn’t even flinch. 

As Kirk and Spock went at each other trying to talk over the other Lydia couldn’t take it anymore. 

“Sir,” she said stepping into the argument to talk to Pike. “The last time an anomaly like this happen, a lighting storm in space, a Romulan ship attacked the U.S.S. Kelvin. It was the same day Jim was born. You know that. We have read your dissertation.” 

“Plus,” Jim stepped up next to her. “This ship was never seen or heard from again. The Kelvin attack took place on the edge of Klingon space and at eleven hundred hours last night, there was an escape from a Klingon prison. The escaped prisoners were Romulans, and it was reported that they stole a ship from the prison dock.”

Pike turned to Kirk and asked him about the prison break that Lydia had no idea about. She turned to Jim waiting for his response. They needed to get this ship to stop. This was Jim’s and her worst fear. Ever since they had read Pike’s dissertation they had worried that one day they would come into contact with this ship. The ship that took everything from them. Jim had pointed to Uhura behind them.

“Sir,” Uhura said stepping up. She knew that something was going on, something big. Because she knew that whatever it was she trusted Lydia. “I intercepted and translated the message myself. Kirk’s report is accurate. 

“We are warping into a trap, there are Romulans waiting for us, I promise you that.”

For a moment, it was as if time stopped. All eyes were on Captain Pike. The crew was ready to do whatever he said, yet he had to call it out. Pike turned to Spock and for a moment, Lydia thought that they were screw. Spock could have simply turned it around and everything, but Spock surprised them. 

“The cadet’s logic is sound. And Lieutenant Uhura is unmatched in xenolinguistics, we would be wise to accept her conclusion.”

Pike turned to the Comm Officer, “scan Vulcan space, check if any transmissions are being made in Romulan.” When the Officer told the Captain, he wasn’t sure about how to distinguish between the two he turned back to Uhura. “How about you? You speak Romulan Cadet..?”

“Uhura, Sir. All three dialects.” 

“Uhura, relieve the Lieutenant, hail the U.S.S, Truman.” For a moment, it was like Lydia could see something more. She wasn’t sure what was going on here but she was sure someone had just been born, almost an icon. 

As Lydia watched her friend doing what Uhura did best, she could hear everything. They kept talking about how there was no communications. 

“It's because they're being attacked. Captain. Please.” 

After a long tense moment Pike spoke up, “Shields up. Ready all weapons.”


	6. Vulcan

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Vulcan was under attack and now Jim and Lydia have come face to face with the man that murdered their fathers.

She could see it in everyone’s faces. The federation wasn’t a military branch and even if everyone was trained in some combat form they were not soldiers. Lydia could hear her heart and could barely breathe. No one was ready for what they were going to find but they were going to be as ready as possible. 

“Arrival at Vulcan in five seconds!” Lydia felt Jim come to stand next to her and hold her hand. As much as this was hard for everyone, Lydia and Jim were about to see the people who killed their fathers. She held his hand as hard as she could. “Four... three... two—“

As the Enterprise dropped out of warp, they enter what could only be described as a war zone. 

“Emergency Evasive!”

“On it.”

Sulu moves the Enterprise like it was made for his hands. As the ship dips and spins around the debris Lydia felt the ship taking some hits. As long as it wasn’t anything deep Lydia knew that the Enterprise would hold. She was shacking, her whole body was shacking and she didn’t know how to stop. She felt Jim squeezing her hand as the watched the ship floating over Vulcan. This was it the last thing their dads saw before they died. This ship. Now this ship was here in Vulcan for some reason. 

“Captain, they’re locking torpedoes,” Spock told Pike.

“Full reverse, come about Starboard ninety degrees! Drop us down underneath them! Prepare to fire all weapons.”

With amazing precision Sulu is able to move the Enterprise to dodge the torpedo. Still, it hits the ship. Lydia can see it in one of the computers on the bridge. The deflector dish and the main dish are damage and there is a hole on her ship. The damage is small but it will affect the ship without a doubt.

“Shields at thirty-two percent! Their weapons are powerful, Sir, we can’t take another hit like that!”

No, Sulu was right, the Enterprise was not going to take another hit. Taking over a computer on the bridge, Lydia started relaying some power towards the shields. 

“Get me Starfleet Command,” Pike yell trying to keep order on the bridge. 

“Captain, the Romulan ship has lowered some kind of high energy pulse device into the Vulcan atmosphere-- its signal appears to be blocking our communications and transporter abilities!”

“All power to forward shields – prepare to fire all weapons!”

Lydia knew what she was doing. She had been part of the team that had put the main frame for the Enterprise together. As she diverted the power, she also check on the maintenance and security systems. The ship was taking a lot of damage and she needed to make sure that there was no system failure especially on the crucial survival systems. 

“Divert auxiliary power from port nacelle to the shields--!”

“Captain, we're being hailed!” With a nod to Uhura, he turned to the view screen. With a few works at the control a man appeared on the screen. 

“Hello.” Lydia looked up at the voice and moved to stand next to Jim. This couldn’t be, could it? 

“I am Captain Christopher Pike, to whom am I speaking?”

“I am called Nero.” 

It was like Jim and Lydia lost their breath at the exact same time. This was him. This was the man that murdered their fathers. For a moment, the bridge could feel the tension and almost hate that came from these two. None of the crew knew this of course but this man had change all of their lives some for the better other for the worst. 

“You've declared war against the Federation. Withdraw, and I'll agree to arrange a conference with Romulan leadership at a neutral loca—“

“I do not speak for the Empire. We stand apart. As does your Vulcan crew member... isn't that right? Spock?”

All eyes on Spock. Spock looked to Pike, who gave his permission, so Spock stepped forward.

“Pardon me,” said Spock directing himself to Nero. “But I don't believe you and I are acquainted.”

“... no, we're not. Not yet. I would like you to see something. Spock. Captain Pike-- your transporter capability is disabled. You will man a shuttle and come aboard the Narada for negotiations. That is all.”

Then the wide screen went black. Transmission ended. 

“He'll kill you, you know that…” “Your survival is unlikely…” “Captain, we gain nothing by diplomacy going over to that” “I, too, suggest you rethink” “ship is a mistake.” “this strategy.”

How two people could speak so differently and yet say the exact same thing was beyond Lydia. 

“I understand that,” Captain Pike said to them. Then loudly to the bridge, he continued. “I need officers who have been trained in advanced hand-to-hand combat!”

Sulu's hand went up as he said, “I have training, Sir!”

“Then come with me. Kirk, you too, you're not supposed to be here anyway.” Turning to Chekov he said, “Radio the engine room, have Chief Engineer Olsen meet us at Shuttle Bay Five. Lydia come with us as well.” 

“Aye, Keptin.”

“Let's go.”

As the moved through the Enterprise Pike kept giving them orders about one thing and another. Lydia tried to keep up but she knew she wasn’t going down to the antenna so she had to focus on other things. 

“Something you've got only precious few minutes to figure out. If all else fails, fall back and rendezvous with the fleet in the Laurentian System. Kirk. I'm promoting you to First Officer.”

“What!?!” “Captain?” That got Lydia’s attention.

“While I'm gone we need to keep the chain of command. And you two make a swell team.”

“Captain. Please. I apologize, but the complexities of human pranks escape me.”

“It's not a prank, Spock. And I'm not the Captain. You are.”

“Once we knock out that machine... Sir, what happens to you?”

“I guess you'll have to come get me.” Turning to Spock he said, “Careful with the ship. She's brand new.” Then to Lydia he said, “Make sure she is back to top shape when I get back.”

As bravery washed over them, they watch as their captain walked away. Spock and Lydia turned to each other before going back to the bridge.

“If you could use one of the computers on the bridge is there any way...?”

“I know how to do my job Spock don’t worry.”

With cold certainty, Spock took the command chair and he turned to the comms. Lydia took over one of the computers at the bridge scanning and running all the system checks she could think off. 

“Dr. Puri, report.”

“It's McCoy-- Dr. Puri was on Deck 6, he's dead.”

“Then you have just inherited his responsibility as Chief Medical Officer.”

“Yeah tell me something I don’t know.”

Lydia kept working. It seemed like the damage was more structural than internal and she could work with that. As long as the internal core stayed complete then the rest was cosmetic. She needed to make sure the holes were patched up after that she could work on everything else.

“This is Lieutenant Lydia can anyone hear me? I repeat this is Lieutenant Lydia from the bridge can anyone hear me?”

“We are here Lieutenant we can hear you.”

“Good we have two hull breaches that need immediate attention. Can someone repair those?”

“We are on our way.”

Alright I will take care of everything that I can from this end.” 

“Got it Lieutenant.” The engineering department got to work. It would take a moment to get everything under control. Yet this was what she was good at. Lydia knew how to make things work this was her thing. She concentrated on everything in front of her and left the bridge behind. She couldn’t worry about Jim right now. 

“Lieutenant we have one of the breaches patch up. We are moving to the next one.”

“Perfect I need someone to stay there to relay what is happening as I work.”

She could hear Uhura in the background. Jim had done it. They had brought the thing down. She kept working on the panel that had been destroyed when the ship had been under attack. 

Finishing the first panel, she moved to the second breach. The team had finished repairing it and she could now make sure that everything was up to standard while the took care of other smaller things. 

“Keptin: gravitational sensors are off the scale -- if my calculations are correct, that pod they launched is creating a singularity... that will consume the planet.”

That made her stop and turned back to the bridge.

“A black hole? To destroy Vulcan?”

Seeming to have forgotten she was there, they turned towards her a little surprise. 

“Yes,” Chekov said.

Spock, who had been frozen when Lydia talked, seemed to have come back into himself to ask, “How long does the planet have?”

“... minutes, Sir. I'd say minutes.”

“Alert Vulcan Command Center to signal a planet wide evacuation-- all channels, all frequencies -- maintain standard orbit –“

“What? Spock, wait... where are you going?”

“To evacuate the Vulcan High Council. They're tasked with protecting our cultural history. My parents will be among them.”

“You can't beam them out?”

“It's not possible -- they'll be in the Katrik Arc, I must get them myself—“

As the door closed, Uhura turned toward Lydia. 

“He will be alright Uhura just do what he asked you to do.” She said taking Uhura’s hands in hers. She could see her friend losing it for a minute and Lydia knew Uhura hated looking weak. It was something they had in common. “Uhura we have a job to do, we fall apart after. Come on.” 

With a nod, Uhura got back to work. She knew who that man on the screen was to Lydia and Jim. If Lydia could work through it then so could she. So she made the announcement Spock wanted her to do and looked back at her friend who once more sat in front of the computer to continued her job. 

“I gotcha! Now pull my chute. Enterprise we are falling without a chute!!! Beam us up!!!”

“I can do that.”

Lydia listen as Chekov ran because Jim was falling. Without a chute, and the ground coming towards him fast. It was as if she couldn’t breathe for a minute or a lifetime. What would she do if she lost him? She couldn’t lose him too.

Then everything happened so fast. Jim and Sulu were back on the Enterprise. Spock had gone down and come back without one important person. The Enterprise flew away as they watched Vulcan consume itself until nothing is there but darkness.


	7. Captain Spock and Officer Kirk

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After the destruction of Vulcan the Enterprise now has to decide if it’s better to follow the ship or regrouping with the Fleet. The problem is that Spock is the Captain not Kirk.

As Jim came into the bridge, he moved directly to Lydia without hesitation. He took her into his arms and didn’t let go. They had just come face to face with the man that had murdered their fathers and now they knew what he was capable of. She was in shock and shaking as he held her. Well to be completely honest Kirk wasn’t sure if the one shacking was really her or was it him.

“You alright?” Lydia asked him.

“Yeah I’m good,” he said still holding on to her. “What about you?”

“I am ok. Then again I wasn’t the one in a fight a few minutes ago.”

With a laugh, Kirk let her go. “Yeah well I wasn’t the one keeping the ship from falling apart around everyone. Then again I think what I did was definitely cooler. After all I didn’t see you jumping out of any ships” They laugh a little at that. That’s what they needed, a quiet chuckle between them to get the equilibrium back.

“So what now?”

“Let’s ask our captain,” Lydia answer as they turned to where Spock had just entered the bridge.

“Oh great,” Jim said as they walked to the center.

“Lieutenant, have you confirmed that Nero is headed for Earth?”

“Their trajectory suggests no other destination, Captain.” Uhura said after checking her facts once more to make sure.

“Earth may be his next stop, but we have to assume every Federation planet's a target.” Kirk said. 

“Yes, agreed-- but why didn't they destroy us?” asked Chekov.

“Why waste a weapon? We weren't a threat,” said Sulu. 

“That's not it. He said he wanted me to see something. The destruction of my home planet,” Spock replied.

“And how the hell did they do that by the way? When did they jump so far ahead in the arms race?” McCoy asked. Spock called him up as he was the new prime medic. 

“Well they do have a machine capable of creating black holes. Which after all in theory can be used to manipulate time. That alone could be the answer.”

“Wait Lydia, what are you saying that they are from the future?” McCoy asked turning towards her. 

“If you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains -- however improbable -- must be the truth.”

“Then what would an angry future Romulan want with Captain Pike?” Kirk asked trying to tie everything together.

“As Admiral he knows details of Starfleet's defenses,” Sulu said.

“Yeah well so do all the other admirals that he murder in the attack on the fleet. There is more to why Captain Pike than that,” said Lydia.

“What we need to do is catch up to that ship. Disable it, take it over and get Pike back.”

They all turned to Kirk for a moment. Most thinking he was nuts but McCoy and Lydia were always on his side. Even reluctantly.

“Fantastic, I’m in,” McCoy said.

“Captain Pike left us with standing orders to rendezvous with the fleet on the other side of the quadrant. We're technologically outmatched in every way. A rescue attempt would be illogical.”

“Illogical… you're funny.”

“Not to mention we couldn't do it anyway: Nero's ship would have to drop out of warp for us to overtake them…”

Shaking her head Lydia turned to Spock. “I can reroute some man power to boost our warp yield. It would not take me long to do it.”

“Remaining power and crew are being used to repair radiation leaks on the lower decks and damage to the main deflector shield-- without which we cannot communicate with Starfleet.” “Okay--okay, okayokayokay-- there's gotta be SOME WAY!”

“We must gather with the rest of Starfleet to balance the terms of our next engagement…”

“There won't be a next engagement, Spock: by the time we've "gathered", it'll be too late -- how many planets are you willing to risk? You say he's from the future? Knows what's gonna happen? Then the logical thing is to be unpredictable.”

“You're assuming Nero knows how events are predicted to unfold. The contrary: Nero's very presence has altered the flow of history, beginning with the attack on the U.S.S. Kelvin, culminating in the events of today -- thereby creating a new chain of incidents that cannot be anticipated by either party.”

“... an alternate reality,” said Uhura completely stunned. 

“Precisely. Whatever lives we might have lived, if the time continuum was disrupted... our destinies have changed. Mr. Sulu, plot a course for the Laurentian system, Warp Factor Three…” “- wait-- don't do that -- Spock -- running back to the rest of the fleet for a confab is a massive waste of time—“ “-- These were the orders” “He also ordered us to go” “Captain Pike issued when he” “back and get him! Spock, left ship—“ “you're Captain now--!” “-- I am aware of my” “-- Every second we waste,” “responsibilities, Mr. Kirk!” “Nero's getting closer to his” “next target--!” “-- that is correct -- and why I'm instructing you to accept” “-- I will not allow us to go” “that I alone am in command.” “backwards, away from the problem, instead of hunting” “-- then I must remove you from” “Nero down!” “this ship. If I confine you to the brig, you'll likely escape. Mr. Chekov: have transportation prepare a deployment capsule. Mr. Sulu, escort him out.”

For a moment nobody moved. Watching this two was something else entirely. They all knew it. None of them wanted to move. Who did they followed? Because as much as Spock was their captain they could see it. That wasn’t his spot. They could all see it as much as they would not want to admit it. Kirk was a Captain. 

Before they could react, though Jim did. Trying to get away from the people who were trying to arrest him only to have Spock use the Vulcan pinch on him. 

As all of this was happening, Uhura was holding Lydia back who had tried to jump in and help Kirk.

“You can’t do anything to help him like this, trust me,” she whispered to Lydia as they watched security take Jim away. 

“I hope you understand why I had to do this Miss. Talbot,” Spock said walking towards Lydia. Uhura was about to interfere because if Spock thought Lydia would be logical in this moment in any shape he was wrong. Still Lydia seeing what her friend was doing pushed her out of the way to stand in front of Spock. 

“You want to know what I think? I just saw a captain throw out of his ship a good asset that has proven himself in more than one occasion to be able to think under pressure quite well. I saw a Captain not liking his orders being question by someone and taking drastic measures to make sure that didn’t happened again. I understand the kind of captain you are Captain Spock. Now if you will excuse me I will go do my job because if I don’t we may never get to wherever you want us to go.”

Leaving behind the bridge Lydia knew that she had to move quickly. They would Jim out of the ship as fast as they could but there were still protocol that had to be followed, Spock would make sure of that. So she had to act quickly.

Getting to the bay where the pod was located was easy enough. Now getting to the pod itself would take more of a challenge. The pod wasn’t big but she knew that this pods didn’t have internal cameras. That would help her now how to get around the ones on the outside. Lydia knew that Spock would be monitoring them to make sure everything went off without a hitch. Thankfully, she had brought her pad with her. 

As she watched the last preparations for the pod, she knew that she had to time this perfectly. If she rushed, she might be seen, and if she waited, she might be sucked into space when the doors opened to let Jim’s pod out. Using her pad, she was able to getting into the security system. This was too easy she should really look into it once she was back on the federations good grazes. She was able to redirect the feed so that when she ran to the pod a short circuit would take the camera feed out for a moment. She needed to make sure it was only long enough to cover her yet not so long that anyone would suspect something from it. 

“10” 

The countdown started and she watched as everyone left the room so they wouldn’t be sucked into space in the vacuum.

“9”

Another thing she should really try to fix. It was one pod why did it need a whole room when the escape pods had less space.

“8” 

The room was completely empty now. This was her chance.

“7”

She hit enter in her pad and watched for the first camera to shut off

“6”

She started running making sure that she was always a ghost.

“5”

Last minute idea came to her, she saw the respiratory mask they had put on Jim.

“4”

So as she ran she took one from the hook that made sure it wouldn’t go into space when the room.

“3”

She had made it to the pod and jumped in. She could only hope that the cameras had done the trick and no one had seen her.

“2”

Making sure everything was closed and sealed she put the mask on her and used one of Jim’s belt to tie herself. The last thing she wanted was to be thrown around when this thing moved around in space.

“1”

She watched as the door opened and the pod was sucked into space. Her head hit the side of the pod unfortunately. After all, she was not as secure as Jim was. As she passed out her last thought was a prayer to whoever would listen that she hadn’t killed them both.


	8. Finding an Old Friend

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lydia made a giant leapt by going after Jim. Now this will be a good move since they meet an old friend, a great friend, James T. Kirk’s best friend.

As Kirk woke up all he saw was white. Well white and a little girl holding onto him. Was this why his shoulder hurt? He remembered what happened. Lydia hadn’t done anything to get kicked off the Enterprise. Besides, even if she had she was one of the only engineers that had work on the Enterprise itself. It was Lydia’s pride and joy. She knew the Enterprise better than anyone currently working on it did. It wouldn’t be logical for Spock to throw the best engineer he had for the ship of it. So the only other option was that she had followed him there.

For a moment he didn’t know what he wanted either kill her or kiss her. She was his partner in crime being in a desolated planet without her would have been horrible. Still he really wished that she could have stayed safe for once. Yep definitely kiss her. So that’s what he did, or almost, because at the last minute he chicken out and just gave her a kiss on the forehead. Hey baby steps.

“Computer… where am I?”

“Current location Delta Vega Clam M Planet, unsafe. You have been ordered to remain in your pod until retrieved by Starfleet authorities.”

“Bite me,” Kirk told the computer turning to Lydia. “Lydia, Lydia wake up.” Kirk said shacking her a little. “Come on Lydia open your eyes.”

Lydia was coming to so Kirk opened the pod making a blast of cold air hit them both.

“That’s too cold,” Lydia said coming to. “Where are we?” 

Moving around to make sure she was comfortable Kirk turned toward her.

“Hey are you alright? How are you feeling?”

“Like I hit my head on this pod after coming after you,” Lydia said with a small smile. She turned to look around herself trying to see what they actually had with them. After all, even if the crew had given Jim everything he might need she had actually jumped in here so she had absolutely nothing. 

“Here take this,” she said giving him a jacket.

“No you use that one I will take the lighter one.”

“Jim I don’t need it. I don’t mind using the lighter one. I promise.”

“Lydia look at me,” he said. “Put the jacket on please,” he said caressing her face. It took Lydia a moment to react. This wasn’t the first time he had done this but it felt different right now.

With a smile, she took his hand and smiled at him. “Fine but don’t come to me when you are freezing.”

Smiling back, Jim pulled her up and they started to climb. It was a tube of snow almost 30 feet high only to get to the middle of nowhere. 

“SONOFABITCH-BITCH-BITCH! THERE'S NOTHING HERE!!! YOU NECK-PINCHING MOTHERF--!!!” And he went on a little more, but Lydia let him have it after all she would be screaming as well if he wasn’t the one doing it. 

“Lieutenant's log, supplemental,” “What are you doing?” “I'm preparing a testimonial for my Starfleet court martial assuming there's still a Starfleet left.”

As they keep walking looking for somewhere to get away from the cold. 

“Acting Captain Spock -- whose only form of expression's apparently limited to his left damn eyebrow -- has marooned me and Lieutenant Talbot” “not me remember” “on Delta Vega in what I believe to be a violation of security protocol 49.09, governing the treatment of prisoners aboard a st…”

“SHHH”

“What?”

“Listen.”

They heard a nearby growl. Looking around they don’t see anything. Turning following another growl, a thing came out of nowhere. Jim taking a small step toward Lydia seemed to be set it off, so they started running from it. It’s gaining on them, they know without a doubt. So they were pretty surprise when a red, 30 feet tall, hundred eye thing crashing through the ice. Holy Shit!!! This thing is much worse!

They start running again because if the first thing was going to eat them this thing would eat them as well. Pulling Jim Lydia ran without thinking were she was going. All she knew was that if she ever made it to the Enterprise she would make sure Spock regretted this for the rest of his life. Unfortunately they didn’t see the end of the massive mountain snow mountain and they started falling down it. 

They looked up only to see the creature stop at the edge. For a moment, just a moment Jim and Lydia thought they were safe. Until the ice under the creature broke and it fell as well. 

So they continue to run. 

Finally, after much stumble they finally got to a cave. Yet the thing was still coming after them. Lydia had twisted her ankle and it was hurting. Jim was trying to get her as far away from the monster going as fast as he can. Still somehow, the creature reached out and actually grabbed him. Pushing Lydia as far away as he could Kirk tried to hold on to anything. 

“Jim!!!!!” Lydia tried to get closer to Jim. 

That’s when out of nowhere a figure appeared with fire in his arms waving it around. At least that’s what it looked like to Lydia. With that, the creature backed off. Who knew that a 30 feet tall creature would be afraid of a little fire? 

“Jim, JIM!! Are you ok?”

“Lydia,” said Kirk getting up and moving towards her. “Are you ok?”

“Yeah I think so.”

“What about your ankle.”

“It’s not that bad I promise.” And because Kirk has never been one to just sit around he took her ankle in his hand to make sure. 

“Hey... thank you...” Jim said to the man that had just saved their lives. Figuring out that Lydia was right about her ankle stood up to look at this new guy bringing Lydia up with him. He needed to find a good place to make sure she could rest. This guy had fire so maybe he had a camp somewhere. 

“... Jim?

Stunned Kirk looked at this man giving Lydia some side eye to see if maybe she knew who he was. “-- how d'you know my name?”

“How did you find me--? Does Starfleet know of my presence?”

“HOW DO YOU KNOW MY NAME?”

Lydia looked at this man trying to understand who he was. She could see something in his eyes; it was almost like heartbreak. Almost like the cruelest twist of fate was that Jim didn’t know him. 

“I have been... and always shall be... your friend.”

“No, I don't know you -- the only Vulcan I know isn't exactly a buddy.”

“You are James T. Kirk. Your father is George, as is your brother. Your mother's name is Winona -- you were born in 2233 –“

“I don’t understand.”

Lydia was coming to a realization though. She was grasping what was going on. Because there was only one Vulcan that Jim knew that had this confection with him. There was only one person this could be.

“I am Spock. One hundred and thirty years senior to the Vulcan you know.”

“Bullshit.”

After a few minutes where Jim decided to concentrate completely on Lydia they had finally sat down around a fire that Spock Prime, as Lydia called him, had made. 

“Let me see your ankle,” Jim said as he pulled her ankle to him.

“Jim I promise I am alright. I think it was more like a moment scared than anything else. It’s not even swelling.”

“Ok, ok,” Jim said taking a deep breath for a moment. Then he took a sit next to Lydia. He needed a moment to understand what was going on.

“It's remarkably pleasing to see you again,” guess the Vulcan wasn’t going to let that happen. “... especially after the events of today.”

“Old friend,” Jim turned to the Vulcan. “Sir, I don't have any idea how you know what you know. But I don't know you and if you are Spock you would know we're not friends. You hate me. You marooned me here for mutiny...”

“Mutiny?” asked Spock Prime. “You are not the Captain?”

“You're the captain right now,” Lydia spoke up for the first time. Spock Prime turned to her watching her. “Pike was taken hostage.”

“... by Nero.” Spock Prime said in realization and horror. 

“What do you know about him?” Jim asked.

“... he is a remarkably... troubled Romulan.” Then moving towards Jim he extended his arm. “... Please. Allow me -- it will be easier—“

“What're you doing--?” Jim asked stopping him before he could touch his face. 

“I think I know, just trust him Jim.” Lydia said turning to Jim. Spock Prime turned to her with a smile. He knew who she was and was so happy that she was here. At least something good came from Nero’s decisions. 

A skeptical beat later Jim decided to listen to Lydia and let Spock Prime touch him. 

Lydia listen as Spock Prime seemed to be reciting a mantra under breath.

“Our minds... one and together...One hundred and twenty-seven years from now everything ends.”

Then Spock’s eyes snapped shut and Jim jolted next to Lydia. She could feel the energy in the air as her arms hair stood. Yet both Spock and Jim were now completely still. 

Then Jim inhaled sharply and almost fell over. 

“Jim!!!” Lydia said holding on to Jim as she saw him come to. She could see something had changed within him. Whatever Spock had showed him was emotionally draining she could see that much. 

“Forgive me...” Spock told them, seeing Jim relying on Lydia for a minute. “Emotional transference is an effect of the mind meld.”

“... so you do feel...” Jim said looking at Spock now with sympathy.

“"Cthia" is the stricture that binds our emotions... but few of us are that perfectly Vulcan.” He watched as Jim wiped his eyes on his sleeves. Turning to Lydia he said, “I could show you if you wish.”

Lydia eyes opened so comically that Jim let out a laugh. 

“No it alright I believe you,” she said gaining a smile from Spock as well.

“We must go” Spock said standing up. “There's a Starfleet outpost not far from here.”

But there was something else Kirk had to know before they could go any further. 

“Where you came from... did I know my father?”

“... yes you both did. You often spoke of him, Jim, as your inspiration for joining Starfleet.”

There was a moment where both Jim a Lydia couldn’t move. They had known their fathers. How were they supposed to be alright with that. Somewhere in some other universe, they had lived with their fathers’ right there. 

“You should know. He proudly lived to see you become captain of the Enterprise.”

“... Captain?”

“A ship we must return you to as soon as possible.”

“All right then. You two stay here I will make sure everything is clear out there. Take a moment to breathe you look like you could use it,” Lydia said moving to the entrance of the cave.

“It’s good to see something of the things Nero change were actually for the better.”

Turning away from where Lydia had walked off Jim looked at Spock and asked him, “What do you mean?”

“You and Ms. Talbot. I have never seen you together before.”

“What do you mean?” This actually got Jim’s attention. Lydia and he had been best friends their whole lives always one following the other. So, how could someone who called himself his best friend had never seen them together.

Taking a moment to think about what he was going to say Spock gave a look toward Lydia once more. Just because he would tell Jim does not mean that she should have to hear too. 

“I will tell you this but only if you promise not to dwell on it. In our time Ms. Talbot actually followed her father and ended in another ship,” he said.

“So you have meet then?” Was he not understanding Spock? 

“Unfortunately no,” Spock said looking away from Jim.

For a moment, Jim looked at Spock. There was something here. “What are you keeping from me,” he asked. Whatever it was couldn’t be good. They had done the whole mind meld thing. If Spock couldn’t tell him this then whatever it was could not be good.

Spock looked at his friend and made a decision. “I will tell you this for one reason only. I want you to remember Jim that even when life takes something away it gives something back.” Taking a deep breath, he started his tale.

“It was a month into our first journey together. We had been becoming close friends for a while and you had already told me about her. How you grew up together, how she was like your shadow at some points, how YOU were like her shadow at others. Your fathers were the best of friends and so were you both. You were so proud of everything she had accomplish. You used to tell me that one day she would surpass even my Vulcan intellect. 

“That’s why it was so hard when I found you that day. You had been absent all day from the bridge and everyone was worried. Even Dr. McCoy did not know where you were. Finally, I found you. 

“You were sitting alone and in the shadows. When I asked you what was wrong you gave me a communication that had been send to you personally. Ms. Talbot’s ship had been attacked and she had been killed.”

Jim could barely breathe. It was like every breath, thought, notion had left him. In another world, he had known his father, yes, but he had also lost Lydia. It was as if the universe had been mocking him. You can have one or the other, not both. He couldn’t move, yet it was like his legs couldn’t hold him either. 

“You were never the same after that. You told me that day that you had been in talks with the Federation to transfer her to the Enterprise. You said that your argument was that if she had helped design the ship’s system then she should be on the ship in case it needed her. You blamed yourself. Said that if only you had been quicker, had acted sooner, she would have been in the Enterprise by then.”

Jim wanted to scream and at the same time, nothing was coming out of him. 

“In time you moved on. Fell in and out of love. Yet I always wondered if maybe the reason you could not seem to find what you were looking for was because you had already found her and lost her.”

Seeing his friend hurting Spock turned completely toward him.

“Jim, I am telling you this because here you have her. If there is one pain I can take from you at least let this be it. She is here with you. Do not forget that.”

Finally, thought had come back to Jim and he looked at Spock straight in the eyes.

“What am I supposed to do with this information?” he asked Spock.

The Prime though was ready with an answer that he hoped would always help his friend.

“Live.” 

“Everything alright?” Lydia had come back into the cave and Jim looked at her. It was like he was seeing her for the first time. 

Spock looked at Lydia and with a smile he said, “yes, everything is as it should be.”


	9. Finding a New Friend

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> While the Enterprise is trying to find their engineer, Lydia and Jim meet a new friend and find a way back to the Enterprise.

McCoy was not having a good day. Jim had been thrown out of the Enterprise and Lydia was nowhere to be found. He was scared that he knew exactly where she was. Now Spock had called him to the bridge for whatever reason. Like he didn’t have enough to do already. 

“You wanted to see me?” he asked moving towards Spock.

“Yes, Doctor,” he started with a discreet voice. “I'm aware that James Kirk is a friend of yours. Supporting me, as you did, must have been difficult.”

“... are you thanking me?”

“I'm simply acknowledging your difficulties.”

For a moment, McCoy didn’t know how to respond. “Permission to speak freely, Sir.”

“I welcome it.”

“Do you,” here it was coming. “Okay then: are you out of your Vulcan mind? Were you doing the logical thing? Maybe. The right one? Debatable. But one thing's for damn sure -- that kid doesn't know how to lose. Just isn't in his DNA. Back home we have a saying: "If you're gonna ride in the Kentucky Derby, don't leave your prize stallion in the stable."

“... a curious metaphor, Doctor. As a stallion must first be broken before it can reach its potential.”

“Yeah but a stallion isn’t broken in by just anyone. It takes a good hand to make a stallion bend. A hand that the stallion would never turn away from and you are definitely not the one who has it. My God, Man... you could at least act like it was a hard decision.”

“I intended to assist in the effort to re-establish communication with Starfleet. However, if crew morale would be better served by my roaming the halls weeping, I'll gladly defer to your medical expertise.”

“Captain we have something you may like to see,” said someone to the side. “The pod’s cameras were tampered with.”

On screen, they saw Lydia running towards the pod and jumping into it. 

With a smile, McCoy turned toward Spock. “It seems that your only way to control the stallion went with him. There are some teams you should want to be a part of, not actually work against them, because, no matter how hard you try you will always loose. Those two, yeah those two, they can’t loose no matter how much the world tries. You should really think about not fighting them anymore,” with that McCoy walked away. The medical bay needed him. 

A blizzard, a fucking blizzard that was what they were walking through at that very moment. What was it with this planet? Had it never heard of giving someone a break? Sure, a giant monster was not following them but now they would die from frostbite. 

Lydia was also worried about Jim. She had thought that a few minutes would be enough for him to assimilate the mind meld and would be able to work through the feelings. Yet ever since the had left the cave he hadn’t let go of her, not even for a second. Every few moments he would actually squeeze her hand almost like he was making sure that she was really there. She had to admit it felt good. Didn’t mean it wasn’t freaking her out.

“I AM SO PISSED OFF AT THE OTHER YOU RIGHT NOW!” Lydia heard Jim yelled at Spock Prime through the wind. She had to wonder how strange this was for Spock. Jim was his best friend and right now Jim didn’t even like him in this reality.

Finally, they had made it to the outpost. It would only take about half a mile to actually get there. Lydia could only hope they didn’t freeze in that time. 

The outpost was nothing out of the ordinary. It had a long tile corridor at the entrance. Walking in they got rid of as much snow as possible waiting to see if anyone would appeared to help them. 

“... hello?!” Jim called out.

Yet his only response was an echo, nothing. So they headed down the corridor. As the started walking, a small, dark alien creature stepped out to eye them curiously. 

“Can I help you?”

“Are you the station chief?” Spock prime asked the alien.

For a moment, he did nothing but look at them making Lydia and Jim look at each other. Only for Lydia to realize that, the moment that they had gotten themselves together Jim had taken her hand in his once more.

“... no. This way.”

Therefore, they followed the little alien. Right into a room were an officer was waiting for them.

“You realize how unacceptable this is,” he said in an agitated voice. 

“Excuse me?” Jim asked the man trying to understand what was going on.

“... Fascinating.” Lydia could hear Spock Prime say. Did he forget that Jim and herself were not from the future and actually needed some explanation?

“What?” she asked turning toward Spock.

The man though wasn’t going to let them forget he was here.

“I'm sure it's no' your fault, and I know youse lads are just doing your jobs, but could you no' have come a wee bit sooner?! Six months I've been living on nothing but Starfleet Protein Nibs and the promise of a real food delivery! Six months, boys! It's pretty clear what's going on here, isn't it? Punishment! Ongoing! For something that was clearly an accident!”

“You're Montgomery Scott.”

“You know him?” Though the name may have mean nothing to Jim to Lydia she knew exactly who he was. She was an engineer after all.

“You are Montgomery Scott?” she asked amazed and it took Jim a moment to realize he didn’t like that. When had he started to not like this kind of reaction from Lydia to anyone but himself?

“Yes, that's me -- Scotty-- you're in the right place-- are there any other hard- working and equally-starving Starfleet officers around?”

“Me,” said the little alien next to him.

“You eat nothing. A bean and you're done for a week, I need food. And now you're here -- so. Thank you. Where is it?”

“You are in fact the Mr. Scott who postulated the theory of trans-warp beaming.”

“Yeah! That's exactly what I'm talking about! How d'ya think I ended up here? I got into a debate with my instructor on the issue of Relativistic Physics as they pertain to subspace travel... He seemed to think that the range of transporting say, a roast turkey, was limited to a few hundred miles -- so I told my instructor I could not only beam a bird from one planet to an adjacent planet in the same system -- which is no big deal anyway -- but if I were so inclined I could actually do it with a lifeform! So I tested it on Admiral Archer's prize beagle. Which... was a mistake.”

“So it is you,” Lydia said with a laugh. “We still talk about that in the engineering department.”

“So a fellow engineer I see.”

“Yeah Lydia Talbot,” she said giving Scot a hand shake. “Anyway what happened to the dog we never found out?”

“I'll tell ya when it reappears. Dunno. I do feel guilty.”

Jim and Lydia laugh for a moment. They both remembered when they had heard of the story. It was one great afternoon laughing at random moments every time they remembered the story. 

“What if I told you,” Spock said taking back the conversation. “Your trans-warp theory was correct? That it is indeed possible to beam onto a ship that is travelling at warp speed. And that you only required the correct field equation to recrystallize dilithium?”

“I haven't been stationed here that long. If such an equation had been discovered, I'da heard.”

“The reason you haven't heard of it, Mr. Scott... is because you haven't discovered it yet.”

For a moment, Jim, Lydia and Scotty react almost identical. Then it’s almost like Scot decided it was most likely a joke or something.

“Y'from the future, are ya? Brilliant. D'they still have sandwiches where you're from? Piece and jam? Mince 'n tatties? Cockaleekie soup?”

“What is he talking about?” Jim aske Lydia in a whisper.

“Food,” she said with a smile towards him. 

“Allow us access to your shuttle... and I will show you what a genius you actually are.”

This worked.

“She's a wee bit dodgy,” Scotty said taking them to the shuttle and pulling the tarp from it. “Shield emitters are totally banjaxed, along wi' a few other things.”

Looking over the shuttle Lydia had to admit he she had seen better, but she had also done much with worst so that wasn’t her main concern at the moment. She watched a Spock typed something so fast that she wasn’t really sure he even knew what he was tying himself. 

“Rapid. That's impressive,” said Scotty watching Spock as well.

Stepping aside Spock said, “Your equation for achieving trans-warp beaming.”  
“Imagine that,” Scotty said looking a mixture between awed and delighted. “Never occurred to me to think of space as the part that's moving.”

Coming over Lydia looked at the equation. It was exquisite if nothing else. 

“Point of fact: it did occur to you. Extrapolating Enterprise's course –“

That was something that Lydia admired of Spock. Scotty hadn’t yet invented the equation. Spock had come from the future so the time line was already ruined. Yet it never occurred to him to take credit for something that wasn’t his. In Spock mind Scotty had invented the equation and that was how it was going to be here even if in reality in this time line it hadn’t. 

“Enterprise?” Scotty asked not responding to the other thing Spock had said. “Had its maiden voyage already, has it? Well, you must've done something right to be assigned to that ship, Kiddo. She's a well endowed lady -- love to get my hands on her ample nacelles, if you'll pardon the engineering parlance.”

“You should hear the core when it’s in perfect shape,” Lydia told Scotty. “I swear it’s almost like it purrs.”

“Like a kitten?”

“Now's your chance, Mr. Scott,” Spock said looking over the last minute details.

“Look, even if I believed you – where you're from, what I've done-- which I don't -- we're still talkin' bout slingshotting aboard while she's going faster than light. Without a proper receiving pad, that's like tryin'a hit a bullet with a smaller bullet, wearing a blindfold. On a horse.”

“I calculate no more than a four meter margin of error,” if there was ever a doubt that he was Spock.

“That's all well and good unless you rematerialize four meters outside the ship.”

“The aft engineering bay would be our best option then. A large space and no unpredictable airlock. It’s our best bet,” Lydia said bringing the Enterprise schematics up for Spock to view. 

“Yes I believe you are correct Ms. Talbot,” Spock said. Then he turned to Jim who having no clue about engineering had been staying out of the way.

“You're coming with us, right?”

“No, Jim. My destiny lies along a different path.”

“Your destiny can wait…he won’t believe me, only you can explain w…”

“Under no circumstances can he be made aware of my existence. You must promise me this.”

“You're telling me I can't tell you I'm following your own orders? Why not? What happens?”

“Trust me. Above all. Jim, this is the one rule you cannot break. To stop Nero, you alone must take command of your ship.”

“How, over your dead body?”

“Preferably not. There is, however, Starfleet Regulation 619.”

Turning towards Lydia with a look Jim seemed to ask her what he meant. It brought a small smile to Spock face.

“619 states,” she started to explain to Jim. “That any commanding officer who is emotionally compromised by the mission at hand... must resign said command. How you are going to emotionally compromise Spock, I have no idea. Until I met Spock Prime here,” she said pointing at Spock who gave the name a smile. “I wasn’t even sure he had emotions to feel let alone to compromise.”

“Jim. I just lost my planet. I can tell you. I am emotionally compromised. What you must do... is get me to show it.”

“Hm,” Jim wondered if Spock Prime, as Lydia called him, even knew that his mother had died. 

“Aye, then. Live or die, Laddies, let's get this over with. he Enterprise has a decent cafeteria I'm guessing.”

“One of the best I can promise you that Mr. Scott.”

“Oh lassie non of tha. You can call me Scotty.”

Scotty moved to the pad leaving the other three behind. They moved to follow, but at the last second, Jim moved back to Spock.

“You know... coming back in time... changing history... that's cheating.”

Spock can’t help it. For a moment, it’s like he is talking to his Jim. The one from his time. The one that had done everything in his power to be a good captain. The one he would have died for and who would have died for him. It almost felt like being back home. 

“A trick I learned from an old friend. Now remember what I said, Live.”

Something strikes Jim at that moment, a revelation. No matter the past, that he may have had in Spock’s time this was a different time. He needed to live in this one. Spock knew what he was going to do to get the ship, his ship back. Moreover, Spock was all right with it. 

“Live Long And Prosper.”

As they vanished Spock had to wonder what this new time would bring to this new Kirk and Spock.


	10. Finally Captain Kirk

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Back in the Enterprise, Jim has two very important task, become the captain of his ship and go after the Narada. Could he do it without breaking Spock and keeping him on their side?

For a moment, Jim doesn’t want to breathe. He looks down at himself almost like he is trying to make sure that every part of him is there with him. Then he look towards Lydia, she is there right next to him as beautiful as always. Yet before he can really think about what he just thought looking at her, he sees her eyes opened in horror. As he looks behind himself, he realizes that Scotty isn’t there and that the banging he is hearing is actually him. Then Scotty appears in a translucent pipe, freaking out just when the strong current yanked him away.

“Oh shit,” Lydia screamed as she started running, first after the Scotty in the tube then ahead.

“Lydia what is going on?” he asked trying to keep up with Scotty.

“I’m an engineer Jim, I know where that pipe leads and it is not good.

Then Jim sees what she was so worried about. There is a giant turbine and Scotty is headed right to it. 

“LYDIA!!!” he screams as he still runs after Scotty.

“Yelling isn’t going to help Jim,” she said trying to gain access to the turbine. She tries to manually shut it down but no luck. Fine then if they wanted to make it harder. Finally after a second she get the right combination to opened the pipe just as Scotty was coming to the last bend. 

“Mr. Scott you ok,” asked Jim as he moved toward the man who had literally fallen from the pipe.

“Ugh uh ugh… I’m ok re’lly,” he said between coughs trying to catch his breathe.

Lydia had taken a moment to make sure that everything in the system was back to it’s original purpose and that her tampering hadn’t done any damage before she moved toward the two men. 

“We have to move,” she said. “They will know we are here pretty soon in the bridge.”

Looking at each other Jim gave Lydia a small nod. He knew what he had to do. 

They needed to run, and so they did. Lydia, Kirk and a wet Scotty raced through the ship, only to finally turned a corner and be faced with phasers aimed right at them. Stepping in front of Lydia just in case one of this decided to get trigger happy Jim looked at the guards right in the face. Only to see that one of them was the guy from that bar fight that changed his life all those years ago.

“Come with me. Cupcake.” 

Well Shit.

The plan was that once they made it to the bridge Jim would be the one to talk and neither Lydia nor Scotty would try to get into it. He had to do it. This was his ship and he had to get it himself. 

As they walked into the bridge, they saw everyone there. They were all looking at them like they had never seen them before. Maybe that wasn’t it, and maybe it had more to do with the transporting to a ship that was in warp than anything else but not once did Jim nor Lydia bow their heads. 

Seeing them come in Spock walked up to Kirk with one of his eyebrows raised. 

“Surprise,” Jim said.

Not wanting to deal with Kirk at the moment Spock turned to the one he didn’t know. “Who are you?”

Not letting Scotty talk Jim said, “He's with me.”

“We're travelling at warp,” Spock spoke to Kirk. “How did you manage to get aboard this ship?”

It was a completely different experience for Jim right now talking to young Spock after getting to know Spock Prime. He wondered for a second how long it would take this Spock to turn into the man he saw.

“You're the genius, you figure it out.”

“As Captain of this vessel I order you to answer the question.”

“Well I'm not telling,” then “Captain.” That confounded Spock for a second and that was all Jim needed. “Does that frustrate you? My lack of cooperation... does it make you angry?”

Seeing he wasn’t going to be getting to Kirk any time soon and that the same could be said for Lydia since she wasn’t even looking at them Spock turned to the newcomer once more.

“You are not a member of this ship's crew. Under penalty of court martial, I order you to explain to me how you beamed ab –“

Jim to Scotty. “Don't answer him.”

“You will answer me.”

“I'd rather not take sides,” Scotty said almost taking a step behind Lydia who seeing him gave him a smile. 

Seeing her reaction to Scotty Spock moved towards Lydia only for her to turn full on towards him and say, “don’t even try it.”

“What is it about you, Spock?” Jim said taking Spock’s attention off Lydia and back to him. This was it. This was the chance he needed. “Your planet was just destroyed -- your mother murdered -- and you're not even upset?”

“Your presumption that these experiences interfere with my abilities to command this ship is inaccurate—“

“Yet you said fear was necessary for command. I mean -- did you see that bastard's ship? Did you see what he did?”

“Yes, of course I” and for the first time both Jim and Lydia detected something different in Spock’s voice.

“So are you afraid or aren't you?!?”

“I will not... allow you to lecture me about the merits of emotion.”

Seeing he was affecting Spock Jim took a step toward him. 

“Then why don't you stop me.”

Everyone was watching, tense like they knew something was coming they just didn’t know what or when.

“Step away from me, Mr. Kirk.”

“What is it like? Not to feel? Anger. Or heartbreak. Or the need to stop at nothing to avenge the death of the woman who gave birth to you?!”

“-- back away –“ Closer still.

“You must not feel anything! It must not even compute for you! You must not have loved her at all--!”

There was no warning. Not even a small sign. One second they were face to face the next it’s a flair of fist that no one, not even security could follow. Lydia tries to stay with Jim, but it’s not possible. Then everyone sees it. Spock is choking Jim to death. It was an instinct one that Lydia knows well. Seeing Jim almost dying she jumped in to try to save him. Spock was concentrated on one thing though and when she went against him; Spock hit Lydia so hard that he send her flying against a panel hitting her head in the process. 

“SPOCK!” Everyone turned to Spock’s father who had spoken and seemed to be the only one who could get to him. Everything stopped. Spock, red face, finally releases Jim, whom after taking some big gulps of air moved toward Lydia to make sure she was safe. 

As Spock turned, he saw everyone in the crew looking at him completely stunned. Spock looked at every one of them until he saw Kirk and Lydia on the floor. Her cheek was already turning red from when he had hit her. Yet Kirk wasn’t looking at him with spite or hatred, both of which he would have understood, but with compassion. The man was on the floor barely breathing holding on to the woman he love that Spock himself had hurt, and still he could look at him with compassion? He had to turn away from them he couldn’t keep looking at them. Still once he turned he found himself face to face with his father. His Father. Leveling his chin and wiping his eyes to try to keep some form of dignity he turned to the doctor.

“Doctor,” he said softly. “I am no longer fit for duty. I hereby relinquish my command on the grounds that I have been... emotionally compromised. Please note the time and date in the ship's log.”

No one knew what to do as Spock left the bridge. He had quit.

Finally breaking the silence Scotty decided to say, “I like this ship. It's exciting.”

Getting up from the floor Jim looked Lydia over. He needed to make sure she was all right before he could do anything else. She had hit her head against a panel and the spot where Spock had hit her was already a very alarming shade of red.

“Are you ok,” he asked taking her face softly in his hands; he didn’t want to hurt her more than she already was. 

“I am. What about you?”

“I am, he wasn’t that strong,” Jim told her with a smile.

Having been watching them for a few moments Bones decided he could not watch anything else. What if they started kissing right here in front of everyone.

“Congratulations, Jim,” he said exasperated as he watched Jim and Lydia let go of each other. “Now we've got no Captain and no first officer to goddamn replace him.”

This was it. This was the moment he had been waiting for since he first talked to Pike back at the bar all those years ago. Then why was he so afraid?

“Yeah we do,” Jim said knowing that there was no going back. He was the captain now, with everything that came. 

The whole crew was confused for a moment until Sulu said, “Pike made him First Officer.”

“WHAT?!” 

“Thanks for the support!” Jim said moving toward the Captain’s chair, his chair. 

As Uhura passed him, though, it was like she couldn’t help herself.

“I sure hope you know what you're doing. Captain.” The way she said it made Lydia mad. No one knew how much Jim wanted this, but not like this. He wanted to make his father’s memory proud and be given a ship that he would command because he earned it. It was never his idea to cause mutiny and get Spock thrown out so he could sit pretty on the chair. She didn’t say anything though because as she heard Jim respond with a ‘so do I’ she knew that Jim could handle the chair and this crew. That was what he was born to do. No one could say any different. 

“Attention crew of the Enterprise. This is James Kirk... Mr. Spock has resigned commission and advanced me to acting Captain. I know you were all expecting to regroup with the fleet, but I've ordered a pursuit course of the enemy ship to Earth. I want all departments at battle stations and ready in ten minutes. Either we're going down, or they are. Kirk out.”

“I want some answers,” said Uhura coming to stand in front of Jim. She had put up with a lot because she was friends with Lydia but not anymore.

With a look at Uhura, Jim turned toward McCoy. “Bones look over Lydia I want to make sure she is alright.”

“I am right here Jim.”

“Good then you won’t argue that much. I need to make sure you are in top shape before we catch up to the Narada.”

McCoy moved to Lydia to look her over while everyone else turned to Jim.

“Hey,” Uhura was pissed off. “Right now. Where the hell'd you get trans-warp technology?”

“Yeah, you know that's complicated.” What was he supposed to say. Yeah the guy that almost kill me, you know him, well turns out we are best friends in the future and he gave it to me.

“Do I look simple to you?!” Uhura asked offended.

“I'm a PhD in astrophysics,” said Sulu jumping into the argument. “I think I can handle it -- how'd you get back?”

“You vant us to trust you but you von't tell us the truth?”

“No. No, I won't,” but Lydia had enough.

“Enough,” she said standing from where she had sat so McCoy could look her over. “You want to know how we did it, figure it out. It’s not our job to tell you anything. We were maroon on a planet that only had one climate, cold. Therefore, we figured out how to get somewhere warmer, that’s it. For the equation this guy knows it,” she said pointing at Scotty. “Now can we move on from this because we need to figure a way to catch up to Nero’s ship? I for one want Admiral Pike back.”

They all looked at her. No one was really happy with the answer but right now wasn’t the time for questions and they knew it.

“There's not a chance,” said Sulu who seemed to be the first to come into working mode. “They're gonna be in geosynchronous orbit around Earth in ten minutes. We'll never make it.”

“Even if we could,” said McCoy knowing that if anyone could figure out a way to make ships go faster was Lydia. “You can't go in guns blazing, not with their technology, that's suicide.”

“Then we find a way to get on that ship and steal the black hole device away from them.”

“Well you can forget transwarp,” said Scotty who had found a towel only he knew where. “No way to predict the Narada's position from here.”

“Uhura: anything from Captain Pike?”

“No... I've been monitoring all channels.”


	11. Finally Comander Spock

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Spock is BACK!!! Now is time to finally see what this duo can do together when they are on the same side. And Lydia loves every moment of it.

They were all still trying to figure out a strategy when Chekov decided to speak up.

“Keptin Kirk? Excuse me, plees, could I...?”

As all eyes turned to him, it was almost like he deflated a little waiting for permission to speak.

“Yes, Chekov-- you don't need to ask permission to speak,” he said with a wave of his hands.

“Based on the Narada's course from Vulcan, I've projected that Nero will travel past Saturn. If we could drop out of warp behind one of Saturn's moons, say, Titan, the magnetic distortion from the planet's rings will make us invisible to Nero's sensors. We could follow him to Earth by staying in his blind spot.”

“What blind spot?” asked Bones. He had finished looking over Lydia and then he looked over Jim. 

“Its exhaust wake. If we adjust our shield frequencies, they shouldn't detect us.”

“Wait a minute-- anyone understand this kid? How old are you?”

“I am seventeen, Sir,” Chekov said almost with pride.

“Seventeen?”

“Bones the things I could do when I was seventeen could scare you. Don’t underestimate him,” Lydia turned to McCoy.

“Yeah well you weren’t calculating…whatever the hell he said.”

“Doctor... Mr. Chekov is correct.”

Everyone turned toward Spock who had just entered. Lydia gave Jim a look. Could it be that he was back to himself enough that he could help? 

“I have reviewed his telemetry. If Mr. Sulu can maneuver us into position, I can beam aboard Nero's ship.”

“I won't let you to do that, Mr. Spock,” Jim said. He was truly worried about Spock. 

“Romulans and Vulcans share a common ancestry. Our cultural similarities will make it easier for me to access their ship's computer to locate the device.” Then taking a deep breathe he continued. “Also, my mother was human. Which makes Earth the only home I have left.”

That’s what Jim needed to hear. This was the Vulcan he wanted covering his back. Right now Spock didn’t know this and maybe couldn’t understand him, but by making himself seem more emotional he had gain a lot of respect from everyone in the crew.

“Then I'm coming with you,” Jim said looking at Spock with respect.

“I would cite regulation, but I know you will simply ignore it.”

“See, we're getting to know each other.” 

For a moment, it was as if Lydia could see the future, and what she saw made her smile. A friendship that would last through time had just been born. 

They had made it, with minutes to spared, but they had made it. She was in the transport room with Scotty making sure everything went according to plan. She had just had a fight with Jim about whether or not she was going to the Narada with them and still could not seem to shake the feeling that something was wrong.

“I am going with you,” she said as they all walked to different places to get everything ready.

“No you are not,” Jim had said without looking up.

“Yes I am.”

“No you are not.”

“Give me one good reason why I should stay.”

“Because I am your captain and I am ordering you to.” At that moment Uhura and Spock had walked by and their faces showed their disbelieve at what Jim had just said. Did he really think that was going to work?

“You’ve got to do better than that James T. Kirk. That man, that ship, is the reason I don’t have a father so unless you can give me a honest good reason why I should stay behind you are going to have to ask Bones to knock me out with something. Otherwise I will find my own way there.”

He looked at her and Lydia couldn’t breathe. It was like Jim was trying to explain the universe to her with just one look and she was falling down the hole. 

“I will beg you on my knees if I have to just please don’t go,” he took her hands in his and rested his forehead on hers. “I could live in a world where you are mad at me and never want to see me again. I couldn’t live in a world where not seeing you was the only option. That man took one of the most important person in the world from me. I am begging you don’t let him take anyone else from me please.”

“What about me? What if he takes another person from me?”

“I will come back Lydia, because I have you to come back to.”

“And you are saying what that if I went I wouldn’t have…”

“I am saying that I would die if I lost you. I am saying that I don’t want to live in a world you are not in any more. I am saying I love you, please don’t take that love from me. Up until now, everyone I have loved has left. Please don’t do this to me again.”

Taking a moment to realized what he had just said she took a deep breathe. 

“I love you too,” she said getting a smile from Jim. “So you better come back.”

“I will. Besides you have to stay, who is going to take care of the Enterprise while I’m gone. It’s my pride and joy you know,” he said smiling at her. 

Now she and Scotty were sitting at the controls of the transporter room. She needed to make sure everything was ready so Jim could go and come without a problem. 

“Transporter Room,” said Sulu from the bridge. “We're in stable geosynchronous orbit behind the Narada.”

“No sign they've detected us,” confirmed Chekov.

“Perfect Mr. Sulu be ready for any other directions,” she said as she watched Jim and Spock get ready. 

“Whatever happens Mr. Sulu,” Jim said into the comm. “If you feel you have a tactical advantage fire on that ship. Even if we're still aboard. It's an order.”

“Yessir. Good luck.”

“We'll be monitoring your frequency...” Uhura was telling Spock who decided at that moment to kiss her.

“Thank you, Nyota,” said Spock with a face almost as if he couldn’t breathe. 

Unlike Kirk who was in total shocked and turned to Lydia.

“Did you know,” he asked her.

“Didn’t you?” she asked him back with a smile.

Giving her a smile back, he walked closer to Lydia. “You know we did confess our love for each other maybe we should try something like that,” he said pointing to were Spock still held Uhura.

“How about this,” she said with a smile. “Come back to me and I will give you all the kisses you want.”

It worked; Jim couldn’t stop smiling as he stood on the transporter.

Finally Uhura left Spock and Jim turned to him.

“Her first name is...”

“I have no comment on the matter.”

“Okey dokey,” Scotty said. “If there's any common sense to their ship design, I'll be puttin' ya in a cargo bay, shouldn't be a soul in sight.”

As Lydia looked up, she wished Spock Prime was here next to her, or at least someone who understood what a moment this was. Kirk and Spock standing on the transporter pad, side by side and facing the same direction for the first time. Yes, she wished someone who knew what an iconic moment this was was standing with her.

“Energize.”

Jim had to wonder in the grand scheme of life how many times one could be both right and wrong when transporting. Because yes they had made it to the cargo bay, but no it wasn’t there empty there were souls in sight. Six to be precise. 

Their saving grace had been that the Romulans were as shock to see them as Kirk and Spock. The fight started. The guy Jim was fighting was definitely giving him some problems, but finally he was down so he turned to help Spock only to find the rest unconscious.

Self-consciously he said, “mine had a gun,” before walking off.

“I am trained in the Vulcan martial art of Suus Mahna.” Spock said as he moved to try to meld him mind with one of the Romulans. “I am unable to meld with these Romulans there are subtle differences in their physiology I did not anticipate.”

“Punch him in the face – make him talk – Suss Mahna his intended ass.”  
“Suss Mahna is only for self-defense, he’s no longer a threat.”

“Then pretend it’s a threat – I’m your captain that’s an order.”

With a look at Kirk, that is exactly what Spock does.

“What is your computer access code?” he asked with the comlink translator.

The guard spits green blood at Spock and he decides to use some of that repress anger he has been holding on to.

“TELL! (PUNCH) ME! (PUNCH) THE! (PUNCH) CODE!” Very subtle. 

As Uhura and Lydia returned to the bridge everyone’s stations go dark.

“They activated the drill.”

“Communications and transporter inoperative.”

“They’re on their own.”

For a second Lydia can’t breathe but she keeps it together, because someone has to.

The Romulan had finally decided to see thing Spock’s ways and had given them the code they needed to get into the computer.

“What you refer to as the "Red Matter Device" is in the main hangar -- and I've located Captain Pike.”

“Is he alive?”

“Unknown.”

“Let's move.”

Three tasks that’s all they have three task, find the red matter, find the Pike, and get of the ship. They could do it. So they moved down the hall always covering each other.

First task, find the red matter. 

They had found the ship that contained the red matter.

“Spock, you'll be piloting the ship alone.”

“Which may be problematic, as I am unfamiliar with this ship's design.”

“Welcome back, Ambassador Spock.”

“Wow. That's weird.”

“Computer: what is your manufacturing origin?”

“Stardate 2397, commissioned by the Vulcan Science Academy.”

“It appears you've been keeping rather important information from me.”

“Just trust me. Can ya do that?”

“It appears as if I already have.”

“Good. I'll get Pike.”

First task done.

Second task, find Pike.

Kirk found Pike in the torture room.

“... Kirk?”

“Came back, Sir. Just like you ordered.”

Kirk lift him from the table.

Pike shoot a guy behind Kirk.

They left the room.

Second Task Done.

Third Task, Get of the Ship

Running around the ship.

Firing at everyone in their path.

“Mr. Scott get us out of here.”

“Transport in 5,4,3,2,1.”

“Nice timing, Scotty.”

“Never beamed two targets from two places onto the same pad before! That was pretty good!”

Task three, Done.


	12. These are the Continuing Voyages of the Starship Enterprise

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lydia and Jim now are watching the Narada go down with the man that murdered their fathers. Now the question is could they get away fast enough to have their happy ending?

They were back on the Enterprise. 

“Bones we need a little help here,” Jim said moving Pike from his arms to the incoming medics.

“We're gonna need gastric stimulators, let's prep him for surgery, now!” He told the med techs that had come in as he scanned Captain Pike for injuries. 

With a look at each other Jim and Spock took off to the bridge. Pike was safe, that didn’t mean that the fight was over. Nero was still on his ship. 

“Keptin!” Chekov said as Kirk walked onto the bridge. “The enemy ship is losing power-- its shields are down!”

Moving to stand next to Lydia, he took her hand looking at the screen.

“Hail them -- now!”

Then Nero appeared on the screen. The Narada Bridge looked chaotic.

“This is Captain James T. Kirk of the U.S.S. Enterprise -- your ship is compromised -- too close to the singularity to survive without assistance -- which we are willing to provide.”

“Captain,” Spock whisper to him. “What are you doing?”

“We show them compassion,” he said back to Spock. “It may be the only way to earn peace with Romulus. It's logic, Spock! I thought you'd like that.”

“No, not really, not this time.”

“I’m with him on this one Jim,” Lydia said looking at Jim then back at Nero.

“I would rather suffer the death of Romulus a thousand times than accept assistance from you.”

“You got it,” he said turning from the screen and taking Lydia and Spock with him. This would be the last time they would see the man that destroyed their lives. “Lock phasers! Fire everything we've got!”

The screen went dark as they saw the already weaken ship go down into the black hole. 

“Kirk to Engineering: get us out of here, Scotty!”

“You bet yer ass, Captain,” Lydia moved to the Engineering liaison position to try and help Scotty from the bridge. 

The Enterprise was trying to do the quantum leap, but the black hole was too big it was sucking the Enterprise up. The pull was so strong that the Enterprise couldn’t move at all. 

“WHY AREN'T WE AT WARP?!”

“We ARE JIM!!!! We are trapped in the gravity well! It’s got us.” Lydia was doing everything she could. 

“GO TO MAXIMUM WARP! PUSH IT!!!”

Scotty, who had been on the comms with Lydia trying to move the Enterprise shouts back to be heard over the engines. “I'M GIVIN' HER ALL SHE'S GOT, CAPTAIN!”

“ALL SHE'S GOT ISN'T GOOD ENOUGH! WHAT ELSE D'YOU GOT Lydia?!”

For a second she stopped to think about what was happening. This was just another problem she had to fix. That was all. She turned back to her computer to verify the statues of the core.

She turned back to Jim. “IF WE EJECT THE CORE AND DETONATE, THE BLAST COULD BE STRONG ENOUGH TO PUSH US AWAY BUT I CAN'T PROMISE ANYTHING!”

“DO IT DO IT DO IT!”

“Scotty eject the core I will detonate on my side, Do it.”

Scotty slammed the activation panel and the core ejected. When Lydia saw that the cores were where she needed them to be she detonated them one by one creating a domino effect that was able to propel them forward enough that they were away from the explosion. At least now, they were safe. 

The crew looked around at each other. They were all sitting on their sits gripping their chairs until their knuckles had turned white. Still they were safe, finally. 

“This assembly calls Captain James Tiberius Kirk...”

The whole academy was here to watch James T. Kirk be named the Captain of the U.S.S. Enterprise. The only one missing was Spock, but Lydia was sure she knew where he was. 

“Your inspirational valor and supreme dedication to your comrades are in keeping with the highest traditions of service and reflect utmost credit to yourself, your crew, and the Federation. For your... unique solution to the Kobayashi Maru, it is my honor to award you with a commendation for original thinking. By Starfleet Order 28455, you are hereby directed to report to Commanding Officer, USS Enterprise, for duty as his relief.”

With a nod, Jim turned and walked towards Admiral Pike who had entered in his wheelchair. You could see it in his eyes. The pride of the moment. Kirk was his biggest pride and joy and everyone in the academy now saw what he saw all those years ago in the bar.

“I relieve you, Sir.” He said after saluting Pike.

“I am relieved. Congratulations, Captain.” With a smirk, Pike pins the medal to Kirk’s chest. Yes, he could not be prouder. 

“Thank you, Sir,” Kirk said. Then he turned to the crowd. With shining eyes, he watched as everyone applauded, but they landed on Lydia. No matter where they were his eyes always landed on Lydia. 

He walked to his crew and gave them all hugs and accepted their congratulations. As Jim talked to the crew, Lydia saw something up on the hangar. Spock Prime was watching. It made Lydia wonder what it must have been like in his world. Was he missing it? Or was reliving all of this worth it to him. She would have loved to know how that world Spock and Kirk really worked with each other. 

Lydia was getting her things ready for the travel. Her apartment was going to be on hold until she came back from the mission. She wasn’t really sure if she should keep it but she didn’t know how long they would be gone or how long, once they came back, they would actually stay. She was ready though, finally she was going to space to do what she always wanted to do, explore it. 

She still had a lot of work to do. After all, just because she was on the Enterprise didn’t mean others wouldn’t ask for her consultation. Already Jim had said that he would give her an office where she could work on her other works. She had projects not only from the federation, but also from other systems as well. 

There was a knock on the door. Lydia moved to open it to find herself face to face with Jim.

“Hey are you ready,” he asked as she let him come into the apartment.

She turned to get her backpack while Jim picked the bag that was on the floor. 

“All ready,” she said with a smile. Putting the bag back down Jim walked closer to Lydia. 

“Are we ever going to talk about what we said on the ship before?” he asked getting as close to Lydia as possible. 

With a smile, she stepped into him and wrapped her arms around his neck pulling him to her. He definitely looks good in his gold chair, she could get used to it. 

“What do you want to talk about?”

“I know I haven’t been the best guy when it comes to girls and relationships, but I would never do anything like that to…”

“Jim do you love me?”

“Yes,” he said without hesitating.

“Then we start there,” she said and pulled him in for a kiss. A kiss that would last for a while. 

Yes, Jim thought, he would definitely listen to Spock Prime and LIVE.

As they walked into the bridge, Lydia walked to the engineer liaison desk. Jim took a moment to look around him at his crew. All around him he saw his crew getting ready for the new journey. Still young and fresh face they were not children anymore. Yet somehow, they were still in charge of the greatest starship ever built.

“Maneuvering thrusters and impulse engines at your command, Sir,” Sulu.

“Weapons systems and shields on standby,” Chekov.

“Dock control reports ready. Yard Command signaling clear,” Uhura.

“Scotty how are we?”

“Dilithium chamber at maximum efficiency, Captain,” Scotty.

“Same ship, different day,” McCoy.

“Everything ready on your command Captain,” Lydia. 

Yes, they were all here. All but one person as the science console was empty. It made Kirk feel incomplete. Guess he would have to accept it. 

“Mr. Sulu,” said Jim turning from the science console. “Prepare to engage thrus—“

“Permission to come aboard, Captain,” they turned to watched as Spock came in wearing his blue shirt. The whole crew was waiting with bated breathe. Could this mean what they thought it meant. 

“Permission granted.”

“As you have yet to select a first officer, respectfully, I would like to submit my candidacy. Should you desire, I can provide character references.”

“It would be my honor, Commander. Maneuvering thrusters, Mr. Sulu. Take us out.”

“Aye, Captain.”

As the ship maneuvers out of dry dock, Spock takes his place next to Kirk. Gold and blue, side by side. Like it was always meant to be. 

Spock Prime watched as the Enterprise took off. He looked at the pendant around his neck turning it on to see his Kirk. One last message from so long ago. 

“Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you... I know I know, it's illogical to celebrate something you had nothing to do with, but I haven't had the chance to congratulate you on your appointment to the ambassadorship so I thought I'd seize the occasion... Bravo, Spock -- they tell me your first mission may take you away for a while, so I'll be the first to wish you luck... and to say... I miss you, old friend.”

“I miss you too old friend.”

“I suppose I'd always imagined us... outgrowing Starfleet together. Watching life swing us into our Emeritus years... I look around at the new cadets now and can't help thinking... has it really been so long? Wasn't it only yesterday we stepped onto the Enterprise as boys? That I had to prove to the crew I deserved command... and their respect?”

“I know what you'd say -- `It's their turn now, Jim...' And of course you're right... but it got me thinking: Who's to say we can't go one more round? By the last tally, only twenty five percent of the galaxy's been chartered... I'd call that negligent. Criminal even -- an invitation.”

“You once said being a starship captain was my first, best destiny... if that's true, then yours is to be by my side. If there's any true logic to the universe... we'll end up on that bridge again someday.”

“Admit it, Spock. For people like us, the journey itself... is home.”

As Spock looks at the Enterprise going into space. He knows that even if his Jim’s words were not about this specifically, logically, still they were coming true once more. Spock wasn’t sure if he would ever go back to his world but he knew that THIS Kirk and Spock would have some amazing travels as well. 

Space... the final frontier. These are the continuing voyages of the Starship Enterprise. Her ongoing mission... to explore strange new worlds... to seek out new life forms, and new civilizations... To boldly go, where no one has gone... before...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to anyone that like comment or simply read my story. It made me feel like I wasn't the only one looking for another side to this story. So this is the en for this story but the sequel is already in the works so look for it. Thgank you all.


End file.
